PE 3719 

L8 
Copy 1 




Qass TE " 37I°I 
Book ■ )..£> 



GLOSSARY, &c. 



LONDON : 
PRINTED BY W. N1COL, SHAKSPEARE PRESS. PALL MALL. 



CONTRIBUTIONS 
TOWARDS A GLOSSARY 

OF THE 

GLYNNE LANGUAGE 



BY A STUDENT. 



Language was given to man to conceal his thoughts."- 



*o""-a»- """ ft 



Talleyrand. 



TO WHICH IS ADDED 



THE DOUBTING DOWAGER 



A TALE OF A HOUSE, 



AN EPIC POEM IN ONE CANTO. 



1S51 






; 2.3 



TO THE SHADES 



OF HIS 



GREAT PREDECESSORS 
IN THE FIELD 



OF 



PHILOLOGICAL SCIENCE 



PREFACE. 

The origin of this singular language is lost in 
obscurity. But it is probably indigenous in that 
part of the marches of North Wales, which was the 
birth-place of some of those who are now the 
chief living authorities for its use. These are 
the Very Rev. the Dean of Windsor, the Hon. 
Lady Glynne, Sir Stephen Glynne, Mrs. W. E. 
Gladstone, and the Lady Lyttelton : and of these 
the most leading appear to be, the Dean, and 
Mrs. Gladstone. 

The Author submits this first attempt to elu- 
cidate an obscure and interesting province of phi- 
lology, with an humble sense of the imperfection of 
its performance : an imperfection arising from the 
inherent difficulty of the subject, and particularly 
from the minute shades of difference existing in 
many of the cases. 



GLOSSARY, 

&c. 



[N.B. Alphabetical arrangement has been neg- 
lected, as less appropriate to the mysterious and 
anomalous character of the subjects treated of.] 



$f>antotu 

Apparently a corruption of the English word 
phantom. The sense however is essentially dif- 
ferent. It signifies generally e an imbecile person :' 
6 one incapable of serious and rational procedure/ 
It is perhaps most frequently used of one who has 
become so, by the lapse of time, or by an unfore- 
seen calamity. But it must be observed that this 
complete form is not much in use. The autho- 
rities generally substitute for it the expressive 
initial abbreviation ' ph :' not however pronounced 
as one letter, as ' f/ but in two : i p, 5 c h.' 

It is equally used as a substantive and an ad- 

B 



jective. Thus : e what a ph you are P e Lord 
is become a ph.' 



Or ' ph talk/ ' ph company/ &c. 
Examples * * * * 



% a 



fitting €igf)t* 
fitting Cro#stfegge&* 

These phrases are put together in illustration 
of the great difficulty of discriminating accurately 
between some of the expressions of this language. 
They do not mean quite the same, yet nearly so. 
They both mean sitting in expectation of some 
probable or anticipated event. Perhaps it may 
be said briefly, that to sit tight is to be in eager 
expectation, to sit crosslegged to be in patient 
expectation. 

The former when the event is much-desired, 
and imminent : but may fail. 

The latter when it is pretty sure to happen, but 
may be delayed for some time. 

Etymological considerations may justify this 

a The examples here are omitted for obvious reasons. This 
and some other omissions are supplied in the original Manuscript, 
and the omitted passages may be learnt from the Author by any 
discreet enquirer. 



view. To sit tight suggests the idea of a person 
who feels that some slight movement on his part 
might hinder the desired event, and is therefore 
careful to prevent it : while to sit crosslegged is 
the posture of composed and comfortable vigilance. 

The latter also, from its passive character, may- 
be especially used when it is an evil that is looked 
for. 

Illustrations : A lady looking for an advan- 
tageous proposal for her daughter, sits tight for 
it. 

Another lady, awaiting the deferred arrival of 
the dentist, sits crosslegged for it. 

€ottertom 

This so far differs from phantod, that it is 
confined to the case of imbecility from second 
childhood, or premature old age. Otherwise a 
distinction cannot readily be perceived. 

f©i?3I». 

The leading authority for this word is Sir Stephen 
Glynne. It is palpably derived from the English 
wizen : but the sense is somewhat different. 



It means thin, sallow, older-looking than natural, 
sharp-featured, shrunk. 

Examples: ****** 

a@aggte. 

These culinary or gastronomic expressions be- 
long also to the class of quasi-synonyms. They 
are said of meat ; and it may be remarked that 
while whatever is magpie is necessarily quaky, 
what is quaky is not therefore unavoidably magpie. 

Magpie means simply what is underdone : and 
is said to be founded on a very arbitrary limita- 
tion, to the tastes of that bird, of the willingness 
to eat raw meat. 

A slight digression may be here made, in illus- 
tration of the jealous genius of this language, and 
its somewhat cabalistic and capricious restriction 
of terms. Upon the Dowager Lady Lyttelton's 
modestly suggesting the word jackdaw as a com- 
plete equivalent, in this sense, to magpie, the in- 
trusive substitute was at once, with loud re- 
clamations, but without any attempt at reason or 
argument, rejected by all the professors present. 



_ 



Quaky appears to mean anything over-tender, 
and opposed to firm. 

Example: The under-side of the sirloin of 
beef. 

Is a kindred word to the above, yet diverse. 
It appears to mean very juicy and substantial 
meat, and being, as it is, a term of derogation, it 
can hardly be entertained except by a feeble and 
delicate appetite. 

Example : A Leicester leg of mutton. 

SDauntering* 

This seems to be an arbitrary perversion, in a 
single letter, of the English maundering: with 
which it coincides in sense. It is frequently 
used by Lady Lyttelton of her husband, upon his 
making any demonstrations of affection towards 
his children. 

The best authority for this word is Lady Glynne. 
It is commonly used with the particles How, or 
So : in the way of exclamation : ' How poor ! ' 
6 So poor,' ' so very poor ! ' 



This is a highly idiomatic expression, but far 
from being readily susceptible of scientific de- 
finition. And indeed the novice may be here 
advised once for all, that the comparative mastery 
over this difficult language, which alone he can 
venture with any confidence to hope that he may 
reach, is more likely to be attained as a kind of 
intuition derived from patient meditation on the 
examples given of its various forms, than from 
direct rendering or explanation. 

It signifies unexpectedly short : bald : dispro- 
portionate in means compared to the end : an an- 
ticlimax: denuded of due and decent decoration: 
&c. &c. 

Examples : The hinder half of a French poodle. 
The back of a pig without a tail. 

*Jr 5j£ 5|C 5jC 5JC 5JC ^fc ?JC 

Again, it has been laid down by Lady Glynne 
that the poorest of all things was to return the bow 
of a beggar in the road, who by bowing means 
begging. The learner will not fail to remark 
here the happy and racy appearance of paradox 
which is one of the peculiar charms of this lan- 
guage : inasmuch as by the uninitiated intellect 



the poorness would without hesitation be attributed 
rather to the beggar than to the beggee. 

A word perhaps peculiar to the Dean of Wind- 
sor. It signifies bowels, 

2DoIIp* 

A dialectic abbreviation of the word Dowager, 
in familiar use with Sir S. Glynne. 

Examples: * * * * * * 

Under this head the following remarkable pecu- 
liarities may be noted. 

From an overflowing fondness for this word, 
prompting him to irregular and inexact uses of 
it, Sir S. will often apply it to ladies who 
neither are Dowagers nor are likely to become 

CQ • £^§ * >i» T "h V * ^ 

Again, he will not unfrequently indulge a happy 
propensity to enlarge the scope of the language, 
by saying Dowager of the male person corres- 
ponding to that designation in its proper sense : 
as, * * * * But, it is believed, 
he has never been known to use the peculiar form 
Dolly in this sense. 



It may be added that whenever Sir Stephen 
uses the words c the Dowager' simply, it invariably 
means the Dowager Lady Lyttelton. 

It is undeniable that these phrases are intended 
to convey some mild derision, if not reproach : 
somewhat injuriously, as the Author conceives, 
both to the respectable class indicated, and to the 
habits thus attempted to be stigmatized. They 
are simply those of decent order, unswerving 
punctuality, sensitive tidiness, and methodical 
arrangement: these, pushed, as it seems to be 
alleged, by the spinsters in question and those 
who resemble them, to a minutious scrupulosity 
where no foundation of reason can any longer be 
discerned for their observance. 

The Author feels that the impartial reader will 
at once be able to decide for himself whether the 
view in question is a sound one, when he states 
that the type of this class has been, by universal 
consent, though not without a temperate protest 
on the part of the victim, pronounced to be the 
Lord Lyttelton. 



€toarip* 

A word of doubtful orthography. It appears 
to be limited in its usage to children under ten 
years of age : and signifies querulous, peevish, dis- 
posed to cry. (It may be noted parenthetically, 
that the Author once heard Lady Lyttelton use 
the anomalous derivative 

<foier£ome 

in lieu of this last expression.) 

As may naturally be supposed, the chief autho- 
rities for this word, among those who have been 
mentioned, are those charged with the care of 
infants, Mrs. Gladstone and Lady Lyttelton: 
principally the former, as indeed she must be un- 
derstood to be for all the terms noted in this 
Glossary, when not otherwise expressed. 

«Bru6ou& 

A term perhaps derived, according to a com- 
mon analogy, from its own sound, or aspect 
when written. It appears properly to mean 
dingy, dirt-coloured, mud-and-water-like. But 
custom seems mainly to confine its use to these 



10 



appearances when produced by trifling or tem- 
porary indisposition. 

€o €afte Ufte $orft* 

See Audley End MSS. Art. Mapletoft. 

The person here referred to was frequently if 
not always fed from the house at Audley End : 
and; from some unexplained reason, when pork 
happened to be selected for this purpose, would 
evince a total absence of gratitude for the well- 
meant offering. By an obvious generalization, 
the expression is applied to any one not duly 
sensible of, and rather taking as a matter of course, 
the favour and benefits conferred upon them. 

Example: * * * * * * b 

A complete and compendious equivalent for 
Mrs., in constant use with Sir S. Glynne. 

Examples: ****** 

A striking variety in the use of this term is 
when it is taken by itself, for the mistress of the 
house: the Mum. 

b See also below, Art. ' Want of Interest.' 



11 



<©ne of <®uvg. 

<©ne of §our^ 

<9nt of 1$i$, 1$tv$, or €J}eit£* 

These expressions may be considered elliptical, 
and a dry and bare account of them might be 
given by simply noting that e peculiarities, * or 
' habits/ is to be understood after the possessive 
pronoun. But it rarely happens that the phrases 
in this language can be exhaustively defined by 
any such simple process as this, in the fulness 
and comprehension of their spirit. By usage, 
those now before us are mostly restricted to habits 
of a small and trivial nature : such as he who has 
them sets much store by, yet would not often talk 
about, or would willingly have to justify in public : 
often of an unreasoning and half-superstitious 
character: known perhaps only to the nearest 
associates, and with them matter rather for cheerful 
toleration, than either actual approval, or the 
attack of deliberate argument. 

These terms are chiefly in use with Lady Lyt- 
telton and Mrs. Gladstone, and most frequently 
in reference to their respective husbands : as, 



12 



of Mr. Gladstone when writing out a list of his 
coats before a journey: of Lord Lyttelton when 
folding up the well-read newspaper and flinging 
it on the ottoman : of Mr. Gladstone when 
agitated by a drop of spilt milk on the cloth : of 
Lord Lyttelton when demurring to read in the 
evening the book usually read in the morning, 
&c. &c. 

An old woman: almost always an old lady: 
such an one, when short, faded, somewhat dow- 
dily dressed and in sad-coloured garments, fragile- 
looking, of inexpressive countenance, dim-eyed, 
serious, with light hair. 

Examples : ****** 

An elegant classical similitude, with the obvious 
meaning of a person dissolved in tears. The bold- 
ness however and originality of the language is 
vindicated, in that this word is not used in the 
way of resemblance, but of actual personification ; 
' I was Niobe.' It is further to be remarked that 
by the best authorities, as Mrs. Gladstone, this 
word is always written with a small n. 



13 



The most frequent subject for the application of 
this term was one ******* ? a questionable person 
of a lax and lachrymose character, once agent at 
Hawarden, in the heart of the Glynne country, 

A daring instance of the manner in which the 
genius of this language deals with the proprieties 
and analogies of the English language from which 
it is taken; not merely neglecting, but entirely 
reversing them. This word is well known in the 
mother- tongue, in the sense of something above, 
transcending, this world and human nature : in 
the Glynne language it signifies something below 
them. An English Poet would mean by an un- 
earthly noise or sound, something heavenly or 
ethereal : a Glynnese, something strange, not re- 
ducible to the rules of experience, mysterious, but 
apparently proceeding from some gnome or fiend : 
or again something nasty and revolting. A very 
exact application of this epithet, it is believed, is 
one which is not uncommon, to the occurrence of 
some new and odd, but disagreeable and offensive, 
symptom in the course of a disease. 



14 



An anomalous transmutation of a verb into a 
noun. f My take ' signifies { my particular way, » 
f the course that I consider best. 5 The use of 
this term was once, by a most undeserved com- 
pliment, attributed by Mrs. Gladstone to Lord 
Ashley : who, she said, observed, ' my take is 
to do this and that.' 

2Do pou 2Dic I 

These murderous metaphors are indicative of a 
very harmless meaning. They simply denote 
amusement. It is not denied that the original 
derivation of them is from the common English 
expression ' dying of laughter : ' but the use of 
them is materially different, and has the Glyn- 
nese stamp unmistakeably marked upon it. It 
would be wholly alien from idiomatic propriety 
that any expression referring to actual laughter 
should be joined with these phrases : nor indeed 
do they necessarily imply laughter at all. And 
with the condensed brevity so characteristic of this 



15 



dialect, they are commonly, and especially in the 
mouth of Mrs. Gladstone who chiefly uses them, 
said absolutely alone, and without any grammatical 
garnish whatever. Differences here to be re- 
marked are, that ' killing ' is generally used on the 
receipt of facetious intelligence ; ' do you die ?' and 
6 I died, ' in the communication of it : and the two 
latter perhaps indicate a greater degree of mirth 
than the former. Moreover they are all rather 
used in letter-writing than in conversation. 

The examples are all to be understood as from 
Mrs. Gladstone's letters to Lady Lyttelton. 

•So George was quite a dandy at your great 
dinner : killing/ 

' I sat last night between Lord Lansdowne and 
Lord Strangford, and talked Portuguese politics : 
do you die ? ' 

6 William this morning sang a tipsy song to 
amuse little Mary : / died. ' The boldness of 
assertion in this last phrase, when used by a per- 
son in her usual health, has a curious effect. 

€o &it upon* 
€o ftz J*at upon* 

These forcible expressions mean ' browbeating . 



16 



overpowering in argument, or rather without ar- 
gument, by mere noise and perseverance : generally 
perhaps by numbers ; and properly imply persis- 
tence during no short period, till the reluctant 
consent is extorted. 

They are evidently figurative, and from the 
analogy of the oppressed and helpless condition of 
a person who should be literally sat upon, espe- 
cially by many people at once, and his total im- 
potency, except by complete submission, to extri- 
cate himself from his painful and degrading posi- 
tion. 

Examples : Lady Lyttelton ; ' Now, dear, I 
won't be sat upon/ 

Sir S. Glynne : * How did you find the Dowa- 
ger ? ' c Rather sat upon by Caroline and Kitty to 
go to London.' 

A sort of chorus : c We all sat upon the old 
maid to induce her to change the hour of dinner.' 

A remarkable instance of the audacious meta- 
morphoses which the language imposes on estab- 
lished English words : by which one of the dryest 
and most technical terms of the mercantile voca- 



17 



bulary is referred to one of the lightest pastimes 
of the leisure hour. It means a letter, imme- 
diately after it has been read by the person to 
whom it is addressed. This seems the rigid and 
complete definition of the word : but perhaps, by 
the more frequent usage, it may be said that it 
specifically means such a letter sent through the 
post, and again sent in that way to some third 
person. And it is very particularly to be noted, as 
showing that the word is removed as far as possi- 
ble from its original purport, that it may be 
doubted whether an example can be found of its 
being applied to letters of business kept for busi- 
ness purposes: it is almost always said of old 
letters transmitted from one correspondent to 
another for simple recreation. Thus 'Send me 
all the vouchers you can. 5 ' Such a delightful 
voucher of Harriet Brabazon from Sally James.' 

dBroutfe* 

The author fears there may be some shade of 

difference between these words, which has escaped 

his observation. They appear to mean rubbish : 

what is worthless and may be used for vile pur- 

c 



18 



poses. The latter word seems original Glynnese. 
The word * offal ' is characteristically modified from 
its English use, in that while in English it always 
means the refuse part of something containing 
also good parts, in the Glynn e language it has no 
such limitation. 

As far as the author is aware, the difference 
between these words is only one of degree : ' offal* 
meaning more utter rubbish than ( groutle/ 

Example of offal : All Mrs. Gladstone's drawers. 

of groutle : All Lady Lyttelton's 

drawers. 

This is a similar word to the two latter, but not 
the same. They may all be properly used of the 
contents of a drawer, and the appearance of a 
drawer full of hydra would be nearly the same as 
of one full of offal or groutle ; but the essential 
difference is that the latter means necessarily 
rubbish, whereas hydra often if not always means 
what is indeed in disorder, but is mostly fit to be 
kept, and deserves to be put in order. 

The use of this term is perhaps peculiar to Sir 
S. Glynne, who will often say, i I have been 
several hours settling hydra' 



19 



He affirms (but qu ?) that it is to be found in 
Theresa Tidy : i Litter is a hydra' 

The ground of the expression is of course that 
letters, papers, &c., require constant sorting and 
arranging, to prevent their daily increase and mul- 
tiplication. 

local 

This is a satirical expression, used, chiefly by 
Lady Lyttelton, always with reference to the 
conversations or the communications of others: 
and indicates a derisive criticism upon the said 
communications or conversation, as limited too 
exclusively to subjects of narrow and paltry inte- 
rest, connected solely with the place where they 
may have occurred. It is perhaps generally used 
when the said place is somewhat remote from that 
where the interlocutors are ; and it is another in- 
stance of the exhaustive condensation in which the 
language delights, inasmuch as this single word is 
deemed equivalent to a complete sentence, and in 
fact to imply all the answer or remark which 
the communication deserved. 

Example : Fragment of a dialogue between 
Lord and Lady Lyttelton on the Pier at Brighton. 



20 



Lord L. I dreamt last night that ****** 
was to marry ***** ****# j an( j that 
************ ]^ a( j g £ twins. 

Lady L. Local ! 

a toag an 3Ebmiral 
25 toag a 23oat£toaim 

These expressions, which might be similarly 
continued through the 24 letters, are taken from 
the infantile book called the Child's Alphabet : in 
which it will be remembered that for the assis- 
tance of the imperfect memory of childhood, each 
letter is illustrated by an original design of an 
individual, of a class or profession of which the 
first letter is the same as the letter in question. 
And inasmuch as the said individuals are repre- 
sented in the full appropriate costume of such 
their class or profession, and inasmuch as, from the 
homeliness of the execution, their countenances 
and appearance are invariably of an inexpres- 
sive and indistinctive kind, after the manner of 
the waxen busts in the barbers' windows, these 
phrases are used to describe real people, who in 
the view of the speaker are mere generic specimens 



21 



of the class to which they belong, neither rising 
above it nor falling below it by any peculiar cha- 
racteristic ; bare types, in which the individual and 
original has been repressed and rubbed out by the 
conventional and professional. It is to be observ- 
ed as in a former instance, that not only have these 
forms that pregnant brevity which is common in the 
language, so that they are held to describe fully, or 
at least so far as can be judged from outward ap- 
pearance, the persons to whom they are applied, 
but they are used for almost all the parts of speech, 
and indeed in lieu of a whole sentence. 

Examples : Mrs. Gladstone to Lady Lyttelton : 
What sort of person is ******** ? 

Lady L. Oh, C was a Clergyman. 

Lady L. to Lord L. Who is that O was an 
Officer in the corner ? 

Lord L. That's ********* & c . 

Sanguine* 

The author is best acquainted with this word as 
used by Lady Lyttelton : and the peculiarity of it 
is that although the idea of it is not perhaps 
essentially different from that which it imports in 
English, it is never in Glynnese used as an epithet 



22 

of a person, but as describing some attempt or 
enterprise which none but an absurdly sanguine 
person would undertake. 

Example. ******* f Hagley setting off 
to go up Milton's Hill on seeing the foxhounds 
passing over the top of it. 



fUiotic 

This is a leading instance of the singular inver- 
sion, or, according to the term used in the far 
inferior Greek language, metonymy, in which this 
language delights. It refers solely to messages or 
instructions, spoken or written: and signifies not 
that such instructions are imbecile and denoting 
that he who utters them is an idiot, but that they 
are such as would be addressed to one who, if not 
an idiot, is of a slow and limited intellectual capa- 
city, and therefore requires the most explicit and 
minute clearness in whatever is communicated to 
him upon which he is to act. So Lady Lyttelton 
will adjure her husband to write an idiotic letter to 
some servant : and Miss Lyttelton, a great admi- 
rer and frequent speaker of this language, though 
not one of its original authorities, will relate, in not 



23 



undutiful mimicry, how the Dowager Lady L., 
who is much given to this habit, will inculcate on 
a royal fatman, with superfluous elaboration and 
precision of detail, and with exemplary clear- 
ness of voice, a commission in itself of a plain and 
elementary character ; and always begin with an 
emphatic pronunciation of the name of the fat- 
man in question: as thus, e Sprague. Will you 
go to the shop of Messrs. Civet and Scent, in Old 
Bond Street ; not in New Bond Street but in 
Old Bond Street ; and bring nine squares of yellow 
soap, exactly nine, and bring them here and put 
them on this table, just on the corner of this 
table ; and then you will not be wanted again till 
the usual time, as near as may be the usual time, 
neither sooner nor later. 5 

See this Glossary under the word ' unearthly', 
to which this word has some analogy. It is a 
favourite phrase with Mrs. Gladstone, and seems to 
mean only one thing, namely e very absent : ' but 
again it does not mean one habitually so, but for 
the time, from some particular reason. 

Example: Mrs. Gladstone in a letter from 



24 

London : e I was not human last night talking to 
Alick Wood, having the cares of William in his 
new tights' : (see this Glossary, Art. ' Having the 
cares/) 

€a Sate. 

This expression is known to the English lan- 
guage, as a very strong description of the most 
vehement expressions of delight or other emotion, 
on some exciting subject. In the language before 
us it is applied to simple expressions of pleasure, 
by quiet people, on ordinary topics. Mrs. Glad- 
stone will say : 

' I sat next to Georgiana Spencer, who raved 
all through dinner of her visit to you.' 

Or, * I was in a room fall of people who were all 
raving of you and your baby.' 

€66. 
£66of3Life. 

Compare above, the remarks on the word * un- 
earthly ;' to which this phrase resembles in its being 
both distorted in every way from its proper 
meaning, and being dragged down from a lofty 
region of thought to one wholly base and material. 



25 



'The ebb of life/ the c ebbing waves of life/ are 
among the most refined and pathetic metaphors of 
the pensive poet and the melancholy moralist. So 
much the more eagerly does the wicked Genius of 
this language, as some grinning ape, clutch the 
words, twist them out of their rightful meaning 
and tone, and debase them among the lowest and 
scrubbiest forms of expression. In the first place, 
their usage with the definite article is quite pro- 
scribed ; * the ebb of life,' is not genuine Glynnese ; 
but i an ebb of life/ or, as commonly, ' an ebb ' 
simply, (according to the abbreviatory habit of the 
language) , imports anything, specially any occupa- 
tion, that is low, loathsome, degrading, to a sad and 
even ludicrous degree : the rationale of the phrase 
no doubt being, that in its primary though by no 
means its invariable application, it indicated that 
the person so occupied had once been more 
worthily engaged, and had come by a reverse or 
6 ebb ' of fortune to his present function. 

Example : Lady Lyttelton musing at the sight 
of a shoveller-up of muck on the Stourbridge 
road : ' What an ebb !' 



26 



This terse elliptical form ought to have been 
noted above in connexion with the phrase ' to 
die:' being in fact only a somewhat less hyper- 
bolical way of rendering the simple word ' to 
laugh' ; though undoubtedly to burst with laughter 
is not unlikely to lead to soon dying with the 
same. The Rev. Henry Glynne, one of the less 
frequently-quoted authorities in the language, 
once observed very composedly : e Yesterday my 
mother burst.' 

It is said to be sometimes used similarly of 
crying. 

%utoimtt. 

The form in which this is used is always that 
of a given person being audience; often with an 
epithet, as being great audience, immense au- 
dience, &c. It is curious, and characteristic, that 
unless the Author has failed in his observation, 
this phrase is almost always used, not, as in 
English commonly, of many persons, but of one. 
But this circumstance is but one out of several, in 
which it is distorted from the English model. 
Thus, a person does not give audience, but is 



27 



audience. Nor has it any particular reference 
to the sense of hearing, according both to etymo- 
logy and usage ; though it may include it. It is 
a term of somewhat narrow application, and seems 
susceptible of tolerably exact definition. It means 
to be a patient, sympathizing, adulating, con- 
descending, and probably half-sincere admirer of 
something of which the owner is considerably 
proud, and in praise of which he rather prosily 
holds forth. Again, it is to be carefully observed 
that the person is audience, not to the other person 
who speaks, nor necessarily to any sound at all, 
but simply to the thing admired. So the Author 
heard Lady Lyttelton say e I went to * * * * * 
and was audience to his poney :' not at all meaning 
that the poney made any noises whatever, but 
that she professed due admiration for him and 
blandly listened to commendation of him on the 
part of his reverend owner. 



€1)0 W$z of ttje iLatin Superiatito* 

Is to be noted among the forms of this lan- 
guage. It is the adoption of the Latin adjective 
superlative : and follows the rules of Latin in the 



28 



single respect that it indicates an excess in the 
thing referred to. In ail other points it sets rules 
at defiance with characteristic audacity. It is 
confined to the female authorities, Mrs. Gladstone 
and Lady Lyttelton, as the least able to observe 
any rules of Latin : it treats the adjective as an 
indeclinable, knowing only one gender, the mas- 
culine : and it derives an adjective superlative not 
only from English adjectives, but from substan- 
tives or any other part of speech. It is com- 
monly used in disparagement, or acknowledgment 
of a fault : thus, ' it was dullissimus last night :' ' I 
know I shall be flatissimus then ;' and lastly Mrs. 
Gladstone, always preeminent in the boldest in- 
roads on the established rules of language, once 
said •' I was niobissimus ;' perhaps an instance 
that in so short a space cannot be surpassed, of 
the violation of grammatical laws. 



3f toulb €ljroto mp Sftoe at §im. 

An expression denoting a state of great irrita- 
tion in the presence of an eminent bore. It is 
supposed to be an action that would naturally follow 
from that state of mind. It is confined to ladies, 



29 



from reason of costume too obvious to need ex- 
planation : and is supposed indeed to have been 
often actually practised by * * * * 



<&uitt an 4Mb Sfjoe* 

This is a personal attribute, which seems not 
exactly complimentary nor yet the reverse : in- 
dicating that such an one may be called in as a 
familiar, long-known, and comfortable companion, 
needing but small reciprocal attention, and some- 
what below the person with whom he (or she) is 
to be, in station and in intellect. The Author has 
heard ****** called an old shoe : 
on which he will venture to remark that it must 
have been a shoe of peculiar Welsh make, and 
provided with a tongue such as is found in some 
kinds of half-boots. 

Sin tt>e €t)air* 

An ingenious metaphor, by which all the qua- 
lities of mankind, and all thet ransactions of life, 
are resolved into an imaginary public meeting, 
presided over by the person to whom the figure 



30 

in question is applied: it being thus signified 
that he is the best, or rather the first, whether for 
praise or blame, and deserves to be at the head 
of all others, in some particular respect. For it 
always applies to some one thing, and the gram- 
matical structure is thus i to be in the chair for 
this and that. 5 

Examples : Miss Crump is in the chair for 
spillikins. 

Uncle George always was in the chair for 
keeping children off the rug. 

Lucy is in the chair for dabbling in the dirt. 

A jovial continuation of the metaphor just 
described : any good news being imagined as com- 
municated to the public meeting alluded to, and 
by them, according to British usage, received 
with the triple cheer now before us. Thus, f three 
cheers for the arrival of the monkey ! ' : or, (fre- 
quently, and according to previous examples) as 
a laconic and comprehensive reply. Lord L. ' I 
have got the most delightful plan of hitching up 
one's coat-tails in riding/ Lady L. ' Three cheers ! ' 



31 



€o €attgle one'g €ongue. 

This seems an attempt at a physical and scien- 
tific explanation of the blunders in pronunciation, 
transposition of letters and syllables, &c. which 
people often make, as ' showder and pot,' for 
1 powder and shot/ ' spit in that face/ for ' fit in 
that space/ 'grattered and flattified 5 instead of 
e flattered and gratified/ &c. : all which a Glynnese 
would call i tangling the tongue/ as if arising from 
actual embarrassment of that organ. 

i©tjo's* i©J)o an* m>W$ &W- 

A curious and difficult idiom, the use of which 
is confined to those versed in the higher forms 
of the language, and chiefly to Mrs. Gladstone. 
On a quondam lover talking to her, when sur- 
rounded by his children and in a scene of for- 
mer ineffectual declarations to herself, she would 
say c I thought who's who and what's what? 5 
Again if any one in conversation with her enters 
upon any unsuitable or improper subject, and 
treats it in a still more offensive manner, the suf- 
ficient criticism will be 6i Really, I mean, who's 
who and what's what?' The difficulty of 



32 



tracing the etymology of this expression will have 
been perceived : but the Author apprehends it to 
be a corruption of such phrases as ( Who are 
you, to talk in this way ? ' * Who can this be ? ' 
or, as in the first-named case, it may proceed 
from such a strong sense of the change that has 
occurred in the person in question as causes a 
general bewilderment of faculties, and universal 
suspicion of the identity of men and things. 

ULifte a ^Brag^opper'g Wlntlt. 

The Author feels no doubt of the meaning and 
of the derivation of this form. It is held to 
describe an awkward, involved, hardly seemly 
posture of sitting : and is much delighted in by 
Lady Lyttelton in teaching the lesser morals to 
her children : as thus, i Now, Meriel, why do you 
sit there like a grasshopper's uncle?' It is un- 
questionably a figure taken from the presumed 
likeness of such postures to that of a grasshopper : 
but the Author must acknowledge his inability to 
trace the principle on which, not the given grass- 
hopper himself, but one of his relations, and still 
more the particular relation above-named, is made 
the object of comparison. 



33 



Some apology is due for the insertion of this 
filthy metaphor : but it is too well-established in 
the language to be omitted. Peculiarly familiar 
is it to Lady Lyttelton, whose appearance of su- 
perior feminineness is wholly belied in this, if not 
in other instances. It means anything that is 
bad: useless when tried: and is applied chiefly 
to small articles of domestic use, and, according to 
idiomatic rule, to such things as are not susceptible 
of rottenness, and have no analogy with intestines. 
Bad sealing-wax, or a pencil that will not mark, 
would be called ' rotgut ' : and Lady L. will say 
with much severity, ' * * * * * * made 
me a bonnet that turned out entirely rotgut.' 

In these expressions the heart is regarded only 
as the seat of courage or spirit, never as that of 
the softer feelings. c Such a bad heart' in English 
means a want of kindness or natural affection : 
in Glynnese always a want of enterprise or con- 
fidence : the opposite of * Sanguine/ on which see 

D 



34 



this Glossary above. It is to be remarked that 
this idiom is confined to the substantive c heart :* 
a bad hearted person is not Glynnese in the above 
sense. 

2Satf)ing tfttl 

A significant description of the state of mind 
previous to some rather formidable undertaking, 
resembling that of a child about to fall into the 
arms of the bathing-woman. A nervous man about 
to make a speech, has a ' bathing-feel : ' going 
to the dentist, you have a ( bathing-feel : ' and Mr. 
Gladstone, so long ago as 1841, had so far advanced 
in the language that on being asked how he felt 
on becoming Vice President of the Board of Trade, 
he was able to reply, ' Bathing-feel.' The student 
will note that the language disdains to use the 
proper substantive ' feeling/ and replaces it by an 
arbitrary application of the verb ( feel/ 

€f>an OTptf), 

Perhaps the strongest instance of ellipsis to be 
found in this highly elliptical language. Its use 
is confined to Lady Lyttelton, and is by her 
meant to indicate an extreme opinion of some sort 



35 

or other^ about something she has just said : but 
all the particulars of that opinion are left to con- 
jecture, together with the grammatical comple- 
ment of the phrase. As thus, e I have been half 
an hour teaching Albert to write : than which/ 
It is evident that to assimilate this to any re- 
cognized form of expression, some no less enor- 
mous' ellipse must be imagined than this : ' than 
which (nothing more bothering and tedious can 
easily be undertaken.') 

It is said in a tone of despairing good-humour, 
and with a sort of combined smile, sigh, and re- 
signed shake of the head. 

€|)e Wl$t, antr tfje Correlative $on^ge, of 
tfje particle a& 

are also to be specified among the grammatical 
freaks of the above-named lady : but they are con- 
fined to her epistolary efforts. It is simply that 
while she will always write, ; Will you be so kind to 
let me have nine yards of lace,' &c. she will carefully 
compensate for this anomalous omission by the 
no less irregular insertion, f Lady L. begs Mr. 
Wigblock to have the goodness as to send her six 
small combs, 5 &c. 



36 



€o Ztll it to a $a£gmff pgmatt. 

The exact and complete derivation of this idiom 
seems very difficult to discover, though its general 
bearing, after some years' examination, may at 
least modestly be suggested by the present writer. 
It seems a rural image, perhaps of some idle and 
gossipy person sitting in mild weather at the 
open window of a small road-side house. Certain 
pigs come by, laboriously driven, as in the 4 Bubbles 
from the Brunnens, 5 by some Schwein-General, 
probably Irish, with the friendly and sociable 
countenance so frequent among that nation. The 
gossipy person is charged with some tale or 
some news, which he is moved to impart to the 
said pigleader, and to enter into conversation with 
him thereupon. And the case supposed is, that 
he will have been warned by his informant, e Oh 
you may talk about it: but don't tell it to any 
passing pigman.' And so in this, and in many 
similar ways it appears to mean any casually-met 
person — the first person that may come by and 
probably therefore of a low and scrubby descrip- 
tion. The pleasure of the alliteration probably 
influenced the choice of the word. But the 



37 



Author cannot but class this phrase among the 
more recondite of the dialect, and commits it not 
without anxiety to the better labours of future 
commentators. 

This means pert: over-forward: unpleasantly 
precocious: wanting in proper reserve on a sub- 
ject: too confident and self possessed. In the 
word 6 forward/ it is conceived, is indicated the 
fundamental analogy of this singular term. We 
are to imagine a visitor at a very early hour of 
the morning, who to his surprise finds the person 
whom he visits ' already up and dressed :' from 
which the idea is generalized as above stated, 
to any unexpected and premature developement. 
But the tiro will carefully note, that though the 
root of the phrase thus found in common life, is 
clearly one which, if anything, should imply praise 
and not blame, the strong idiosyncracy of the 
language has not failed to vindicate itself, in that 
its Glynnese application is invariably one of blame 
and not praise. Thus, if a young gentleman from 
college should hold forth to Mr. Gladstone on the 
aspect of Church affairs, and how he ought to 



38 



vote about them, Mrs. Gladstone would say : ( Very 
up and dressed !' And a feeble sciolist in this 
language, the Hon. and Rev. William Lyttelton, 
applied this epithet, injuriously and to his own 
immediate snubbing by every one present, to a 
harmless letter written by a pupil at the Training 
School : / am sorry to say, rather up and dressed. 

The Author has heard this word used, but only 
by Lady Lyttelton, in a very mysterious way, 
which he can hardly explain. She uses it of her 
children, and, to difference it still more from 
English, of both sexes; and as far as he can tell 
it only means * little fellow, or little thing :' cer- 
tainly it has no connexion with the English word. 
He last heard it, characteristically, of the one 
who is perhaps the most removed from dandyism, 
the small person called Neville: whom she de- 
scribed as ( rather a bilious dandy at all times.' 

ftieto, ftietoins* 

This is the French vu, in the sense ' consider- 
ing/ c taking into account ' : (as ' vu que cela est 
ainsi'); wholly Anglified both in pronunciation, 



39 



grammar, orthography, and in the second or par- 
ticiple form ' viewing : ' but the sense is just the 
same. It is frequent in the letters of Mrs. Glad- 
stone : and the Author lately heard that lady say 
6 Viewing Nora, I think Lady Lyttelton had as 
well stay at the Rectory :' as if that young lady 
was to be calmly surveyed, or contemplated, by 
her grandmamma. 

A pleasant colloquialism, answering nearly to 
the English phrase { in full fling/ or the like. 
It is used of any pursuit in which the individual 
referred to is earnestly and hopefully engaged. 

It is placed in close juxtaposition with the 
word denoting the said pursuit, and the two 
together, as might be conjectured, are used in 
the most violently abridged and anti-grammatical 
manner. 

Example : Mrs. Gladstone to her sister : * I 
went to the Palace to see Lady Lyttelton. Found 
her high-gee accounts? 



40 



antic. 

This word, known to the English language chiefly 
in the plural, is singular in its Glynnese use: 
and whereas in English it always denotes some 
action, in Glynnese it is also applied to sundry 
visible objects. In the elucidation of this term, 
the Author has had the rare good fortune of aid 
from the fountain-head. He has been favoured 
with an authentic definition of it by one of the 
great primary authorities of the language, the 
Lady Lyttelton. It was as follows : c Any small 
thing or object which, from whatever reason, the 
speaker will not or cannot describe in precise 
terms/ Just before giving this definition, the 
lady in question had applied the word in this 
manner : e I like a cottage- roof without any little 
antic;' which was construed to mean some frip- 
pery wood-work decoration round the eaves. 

A very characteristic use of this word would be, 
as the substantive joined with the adjective un- 
earthly in the phrase given at the end of the article 
hereinbefore contained on the latter word, to which 
the patient reader is referred. So on finding 
some nasty and odd little pimple on his toe, or 



41 



inexplicable little sound in his stomach, the 
Glynnese scholar should say to his doctor, • what's 
that unearthly little antic ? ' 

Sfoponti* 

This terra should be analyzed in conjunction 
with ' Than which 5 (see above :) and may be said 
to be the more ordinary Glynnese expression 
for the sentiment which Lady Lyttelton alone 
renders by the latter phrase. It is a more simple 
form of ellipse, being merely that of i belief/ 
c description,' or some such word. Mrs. Glad- 
stone might say ' Really teaching Stephy is 
beyond: 5 and if the Author is not mistaken, he 
has once or twice heard or even seen written such 
an astonishing combination as this ' Went to 
* * * # * * dmrj er: beyond stupidissimus ; 
which is not alleged as a perfectly correct use of 
the word, but rather as an indication of its gram- 
matical origin. 

It may deserve to be noted as an early promise 
of eminence in this branch of linguistic science, 
That the Hon. Geo. Wm. Spencer Lyttelton, 
once availed himself of the use which he had just 
observed to be made of this word by his mother, 



42 



to apply it to a book on which he entertained strong 
and decided opinions : e This book is beyond : ' 
but whether that gentleman did so with a full 
theoretical appreciation of its force, may perhaps 
be doubted. 

25reaft* 

The etymology of this elegant term is sufficiently 
clear. It indicates any event or circumstance tha^ 
breaks or tends to break the monotony of exis- 
tence. It is certain that its proper and most 
frequent use is of something of this sort which is 
agreeable and rousing : yet is this not invariably 
so. 

Lady Lyttelton will considerately say, ' I think 
Miss Brown rather wants a break :' e Miss Crump 
ought to have a break' : and such would be a short 
excursion, or visit from an amiable friend. 

Again, Miss Lyttelton, before alluded to as a 
sedulous cultivator of this language, would call the 
appearance of a new baby born to one of her 
numerous friends, e an immense break.' 

Lady Lyttelton bringing her husband a bit of 
buttered toast would say ' Here, dear, Pve brought 
you a nice little break.' 



43 



Again, in the secondary sense above noted, it 
would be imputed to a person fond of morbid ex- 
citement, that he would call the outburst of an 
European war, e Such a break !' or a cheerful person 
who makes the best of things, would be held 
to consider his house being burnt down and having 
to build a new one, { rather a break. ' 

With this word may be suitably noticed what 
was omitted in its proper place along with the use 
of the Latin superlative, 

tfje W$t of tfje Single Statin Comparative 
' a?ajor : ' 

as break major, meaning merely a great or notable 
break. It seems to be remotely derived from the 
designations of boys in an Eton school list : or 
possibly from the name of the constellation Ursa 
Major, 

fitting lifte a $em 

This also is rather out of its place, and ought to 
have been joined with the phrases sitting cross- 
legged and sitting tight (q. v.) : from the use 



44 



indeed of one of which, or some modification of 
the two, it is not easy to distinguish it. We 
apprehend that in Glynnese this word is quite 
evacuated of its peculiar significance, as naturally 
indicating a sort of incubation with a view to the 
production of something : and properly means 
merely long and unmoved sitting. Mrs Gladstone 
would say, ' You are sure to find William sitting 
like a hen up stairs ; 9 and Lady Lyttelton to her 
husband in severe but jocose rebuke : ' Now, old 
thing, how long do you mean to sit like a hen in 
that stinkhole room of yours?' 

€toopemtp, 

A strange expression, of which the Author is 
somewhat at a loss to conjecture the origin. It is 
mainly applied to instances of conduct, as, 'a 
twopenny thing to do 9 : and so ' a twopenny sort 
of person ' means one who is addicted to such con- 
duct. It means what is lowering : bad style : in- 
consistent with due self-respect : verging on the 
immodest and immoral : specially perhaps applied 
to slightly indecorous conduct in ladies. As to 
the etymology, we can only conjecture that it 
either is to be sought in a loose analogy with the 



45 

idea of cheapness as suggestive of lowness and 
vulgarity, (compare the Gr. eureX^?, and the 
various meanings of the Lat. vilis in the original 
and the derivative languages :) or that the type of 
the class indicated is the sort of person who would 
buy twopenny things, be seen at twopenny shows, 
&c. 

A young married lady waltzing, would unques- 
tionably be condemned as ' twopenny' by the 
rigid decorum of the great Glynnese sisters ; 
and in former days, before the Dowager Lady 
Lyttelton had attained even the slight insight 
into this language which she has since reached, 
her daughter-in-law would appeal to her mature 
judgment in such a question as this : ' Lady Lyt- 
telton, is not it twopenny to go alone in a railway 
carriage ' ? to the unfeigned but uncomplaining be- 
wilderment, and hopeless incapacity to reply, of 
the venerable Arch-Governess. 

It may be noted here, as applicable to this 
and to a great many of these phrases, that their 
use is perpetually and powerfully enforced, espe- 
cially by Mrs. Gladstone and the Rev, H. Glynne, 
by a strong wink of one eye. 



46 



A common and popular expression among the 
Glynnese, and apparently a sporting or military 
metaphor, as of a gun flashing in the pan : and so 
used to signify any sham appearance of splendour, 
power, or the like, when the substance is wanting. 
Lady Glynne applied it to her daughter's marriage 
with Lord Lyttelton, alluding to the combination, 
in that nobleman's circumstances, of respectable 
rank with comparative poverty: ' quite a false 
flash/ 

Obviously another military metaphor, derived 
from musketry-practice, or perhaps from the 
pleasant recollection of a review. But it is ap- 
plied by the professors with extraordinary latitude, 
so that it almost seems that any action in life may 
be called firing-away. The critics however are 
unanimous in holding, that its most proper sense is 
that of writing a letter. So Sir S. Glynne will say 
* I shall sit down and fire-away a cocked-hat note' 
(see below) at ****** 



47 



Also of making a speech : e I shall go and hear 
William fire-away to night/ (Mrs. Gladstone.) 

The tenth-rate scholar above-mentioned, the 
Rev. Mr. Lyttelton, takes special delight in the 
investigation of this idiom. 



€o £f)oto &nc'$ iSittg* 

A metaphor of a different, namely a matrimonial 
kind. The ground-idea of it is that of a rather 
vulgar and silly bride, (compare Mrs. Major Wad- 
dell in The Inheritance) who in order to show to 
the general observer her promotion to the order 
of married ladies, loses no opportunity of obtruding 
her wedding-ring in a prominently visible position. 
Hence with admirable audacity it is applied to any 
act of self satisfaction or vanity, on the part of any 
one of any age or sex. 

Examples : Lady Lyttelton with great compla- 
cency to her husband, i Who shows his ring about 
his eldest son's Latin ? ' 

Mrs. Gladstone in a letter from London : * Saw 
* * * * * . showing her ring about office.' 

The Author fears he must commend it to the 
care of acuter philologers to detect and analyze the 



48 



exact difference between this phrase and the cog- 
nate one of 

€afeing ftanft upon a €f>ing. 

That the difference is but slight he feels warranted 
in asserting ; that it is null he does not venture to 
pronounce. 

The rationale of the latter expression is plainly 
that the self satisfied person to whom it is applied, 
is supposed to have an imaginary stock of promo- 
tions or dignities at command, to one of w T hich 
he elevates himself as a reward or consequence of 
some action : and so means to be proud of, to 
plume oneself about, a thing. It is suitably joined 
with various epithets : as thus, ( I took immense 
rank upon your letter being puffed in the Times, 5 
(Lady Lyttelton to Lord L.) 

2$attem 

The Author has heard the use of this expression 
bravely upheld by Lady Lyttelton, to whom it is 
chiefly familiar, as one known to the English lan- 
guage. He apprehends however that in English 
it has but these meanings : the eating of car- 



49 



rion by birds of prey ( to batten down the hatches/ 
a naval phrase meaning to shut up closely, and e to 
make, or to grow, fat/ The incredulous reader 
shall judge of the chance of success in the above 
attempt, when he is told that in Glynnese it is 
applied to the eyes : e to batten with the eyes ; ' 
and means to blink or wink or make faces with 
them, like a child going to cry. The Author has 
often heard it so used by Lady Lyttelton of her 
son called the Doctor. 

Other examples, * * * * * 

Pntoetu 

This word is applied to children, and means a 
child brought up too delicately, with too little 
roughing : and so one not ready enough for hard 
games or the like. Lady Lyttelton formerly ex- 
pressed a fear that her eldest daughter might be 
1 a pintoed child :' and the Author has reason to 
suspect that * * * * * is so designated. 

This word is perhaps confined to little girls. 

Its etymology is still disputed among the learned. 
We do not see how any light is thrown upon it 
either by a reference to the Italian pinto, or to 

E 







50 

any such idea as that the child so described can 
have pins instead of toes. 

€o fiun ILifte a iLampIigftfer* 

A phrase of cockney origin, and derived from an 
attentive observation of the habits of London 
lamplighters. It means simply to run as fast as 
possible : and it is confidently said by Mrs. Glad- 
stone and her sister that those ladder-and-light- 
bearing persons do run quicker than almost any 
one else, in their short and numerous transits 
from gas to gas. The Author must guard himself 
against being supposed to acquiesce in this view. 
Whether indeed it is a serious one may be doubted 
from the fact that the phrase seems generally used 
facetiously, and of persons hardly capable of run- 
ning at all : as ' I saw ***** running like a 
lamplighter to drive out the pigs : ' or c Winny set 
set off like a lamplighter to see the hounds : 
sanguine.' 

The articulation of French is not the strong 
point of the Glynnese ladies. An instance of this 



51 



is that the author had undoubtingly set down this 
word for explanation, spelt cruer, which he has 
always heard it pronounced : and it was only lately 
that he had the advantage of hearing it authenti- 
cally explained, as being neither more nor less than 
the above French word. The origin of the term 
was certainly much elucidated by this explanation. 
For the word means cross, out of humour : and 
according to the fearless confusion of substantives 
and adjectives which the language delights in, it 
is the French substantive meaning a cross, taken 
to mean the English adjective cross. It may pro- 
bably have been originally assumed as a hierogly- 
phic disguise of the meaning in a letter, guarding 
against its falling into some one's hands, thus, e The 
old gentleman was rather X to day : 3 and Mrs. 
Gladstone will say with a nod and a wink, 6 Eu pu 
crua you know. 3 

% €ocfeet^t)at $ott or later* 

This means a formal, ceremonious, or pompous 
note or letter, carefully written, and addressed to 
some one who is a superior, or at least is to be 
treated with deference and respect. See above, 
Art. < Fire-away. 5 



52 



The first derivation that presents itself to the 
inquirer, that of a note folded in the shape of a 
cocked-hat, is obviously untenable, inasmuch as 
such a note is commonly more than usually familiar. 
More extended research may perhaps suggest that 
it is a kind of reminiscence of last century, with its 
more ceremonious customs and costume : or per- 
haps an aristocratic allusion to the Minuet de la 
Cour. Mrs. Gladstone will say, with the compla- 
cent retrospect of a good conscience, e I wrote 
such a cocked-hat note to ***** declining 
her dinner.' 

Co ^sfot tf)e <£atc£ of a €pts or $er£otu 

Frequently, in this language, the smaller the 
apparent difference between an expression and 
the similar English one, the greater is the real 
diversity of sense. The phrase before us is totally 
different in meaning from i having the care, or 
charge, of anything. Indeed it may be said that he 
who has the care of a thing, cannot properly have 
the cares of it, at least in the most idiomatic 
sense, which is, to be anxious and uneasy about 
something which one is much interested in, and 
which one fears may go wrong, but which is more 



53 



or less beyond one's control at the time. See an 
instance above, under the article ' Not human. 5 A 
hen which has hatched ducklings, has the cares of 
them when she sees them dabbling in the water, 
and one of the sisters will say ****** 

A word used in describing some of the lighter 
evils and vexations of the world, such as are 
found in the Miseries of Human Life. It means 
an unexpected bore or evil ; one suddenly disco- 
vered ; or the recollection of it after it had been 
forgotten: and describes the first or instantaneous 
effect thereof, being likened to a sudden thump on 
the elbow or the like. An old unpaid bill coming 
to light, after it had long been thought to have 
been paid and was forgotten, is a genuine instance 
of a blow : and the fastidious palate of Lady 
Lyttelton, on finding a promising bit of mutton to 
be decidedly magpie (see above), would prompt the 
pathetic exclamation ' What a blow ! ' 

A word quite unconnected with the foregoing in 



54 



its sense, which has some sort of distant affinity 
with that of ' twopenny/ which the reader may 
refer to. It means some action which, if not over- 
bold, at least requires considerable assurance and 
self-possession in the person who does it. It 
always means something done in public. Perhaps 
it is chiefly applied to ladies : and the only possi- 
ble etymology which the present commentator can 
venture to conjecture, is that it is drawn from the 
fearless walk of a lady in a high wind, with all 
the inconvenient results of that atmospheric fact. 
To walk up a long room lined with company, to a 
pompous reception at the end of it, is decidedly 
blowing : and the Rev. Henry Glynne, who has a 
marked aversion to any performance of this kind, 
would whisper with a wink to his sister that he 
would avoid having to return thanks for the toast 
of ' The Bishop and Clergy of the Diocese,' as 
e much too blowing.' 

Circumstance* 

A standing expression with the Dean of Wind- 
sor ; of which the general bearing may be tolerably 
conveyed by simply supposing an ellipse of the 
epithet ( pleasant/ It would not be applied to any 



55 



great and overpowering happiness, but is con- 
stantly used of the slight refreshments and inci- 
dental comforts of the journey of life. But the 
anomaly of the language is carefully preserved, in 
that while in English a circumstance means a 
definite event if it means an event at all, in 
Glynnese it always means a continuing state of 
things. So the Dean would say, * It was a great 
circumstance for Charlotte to have her sister to 
troll with all the time : * and upon Lady Lyttel- 
ton's sending her wicked daughter Winny to his 
house at St. Leonard's, the patient great-uncle 
amiably assured her that it would be ' quite a cir- 
cumstance.' 

€o €t\\ toitfj a &macfc» 

A queer idiom, both as to what it means and 
what it obviously would be supposed to mean but 
does not. It is applied to one who communicates 
something with much self-satisfaction and positive- 
ness, indicated in the tone and accent with which 
it is said : from which alone, as it seems, can a 
rude and questionable sort of etymology for the 
phrase be conjectured. But it also specifically if 



56 



not invariably signifies that the communication 
thus made is not very welcome to the hearer, and 
accordingly that the feeling of self-satisfaction above 
noted has a tinge of malice mixed up with it. 
Mrs. Gladstone might say, ****** 
and Lady Lyttelton would complain ' Why should 
* * * * come and tell me with a smack that * * * * 
would go away unless they had their wages rose ? ' 

% Wiitty : 

means half-dressed, en dishabille : for it is used in 
an adjective manner, like the term Niobe, which 
see. It is never ' I was like a witch/ but c I was 
a witch' and similarly. So Mrs. Gladstone in a 
letter from Naples, * Seymour Neville came up 
and found me a witch.' 

Why that poetical and extinct species of the 
human race should be selected in this instance, 
rather than nymphs, dryads, goddesses, or many 
others, is a point which the Author cannot throw 
light upon. Indeed he would timidly record a 
suggestion that the idea is rather less applicable 
to witches than to those fabulous individuals : for 
witches as represented in Shakspeare, Walter 
Scott, &c. appear as queerly indeed, but still very 
completely dressed. 






57 

<*Saunt 

These words are put together as being decidedly 
similar, if not cognate. They are not however 
synonymous, but the Author fears that they are 
distinguishable by more minute differences than 
his present amount of knowledge will enable him 
accurately to specify. 

The word c gaunt' preserves some distant 
affinity to its English meaning : not so the word 
< blue/ 

Gaunt means lugubrious; producing melancholy 
thoughts : requiring some courage and coolness 
to face or to endure for long. In English, it is 
believed, it is used solely of the appearance of 
persons, as of Dominie Sampson. Accordingly 
such is not its Glynnese use. It is used spe- 
cifically of places, or of things to be done. It 
would be matter of pathetic complaint to Lady 
Lyttelton or Mrs. Gladstone ' to be left alone in 
that gaunt room :' and one of the first essays of 
Mr. Gladstone in this language was, that in walking 
in the twilight along the road between Saltney 
and Broughton Church, he said that in fancy the 
word ' gaunt ' was continually sounding in his ears. 



58 



Blue seems associated more directly with ideas 
of grief, or of death. A haunted room, or to sit 
in one, would be blue : possibly the derivation of 
the phrase may be from the idea of some such 
room, with heavy blue tapestry or the like. The 
conversation of ****** i s a pt to 
be in this sense blue .•******** 

(It has been suggested that the derivation may 
be from ' lights burning blue/) 

Cfje €ermhtation in Urnfr 

A rude and inartificial idiom, for which the 
authority is the Dean of Windsor. The affix urns 
is tagged on to some substantive or adjective, and 
the ugly compound is then dragged into some 
sort of meaning by the aid of the auxiliary verb 
to have, and the definite article the. Thus, to 
have the churchums (a phrase signally and almost 
exclusively applicable to Sir S. Glynne) means 
to be much occupied in, and specially to devote 
much of one's conversation to, the subject of 
churches. To have the deadums would be simi- 
larly applied to an undertaker, or to any one 
who happens to have been much concerned about 
such scenes, and is inclined to talk about them. 



59 



In emphatic ellipse the Dean would say, when 
asked about such an one ' Deadums, my dear, 
deadums/ 

It is perhaps an attempted analogy from some 
illnesses, or bodily affections, as to have the measles, 
c the fidgets/ &c. 

€o iLet SDoton <©ne '£ 3Ltg. 

The elucidation of this term alone would have 
been stimulus sufficient to the writer, to gird 
himself to the arduous task in which for many 
months he has been engaged. For he holds it 
for certain that no conceivable amount of inge- 
nuity or research on the part of future generations 
would ever have enabled them to arrive at the 
remotest conjecture of its meaning, or, had a tra- 
dition of its meaning survived, to make out what 
its origin could have been. He is able, from 
the best authority, to record that that origin is 
the idea of a wounded bird. It is held by the 
Glynnese that a bird in that state flies with one 
of its legs dangling: from whence follows this 
masterly generalization, that to let down one's leg 
means to moan or make the worst of oneself in 
illness: to be sorry for oneself: to coddle as a 



60 



valetudinarian : to ask for sympathy. * * * * 
is an example of a chronic letting down of the 
leg: and on receiving a tolerably cheerful letter 
from ****** w ho is rather given 
that way, Lady Lyttelton said ' She only tries to 
let down her leg in the middle of the letter once.' 

€o 25enum& 

is a word transplanted from among transitive 
verbs to neuter ones : and means simply the cus- 
tomary time of retirement from society in the 
early days of mourning, as, e to sit benumbing.' 

To suggest any exact etymology for this queer 
expression is evidently impossible : but possibly 
the origin of it is the idea of torpor and stillness, 
and impassibility to outward things, such as that 
of a dormouse in winter, which in a measure seems 
to be appropriate to the time in question. 

%bm t&e Motto* 
<©toet tlje 0900m 

These again are kindred but not identical ex- 
pressions. Above the world means in a position 
of security and advantage: out of the reach of 



61 



adverse circumstances : with an unfailing and in- 
dependent reserve at hand, &c. 

A person well out of debt and living within his 
income, is above the world: and in those rare 
intervals of time when Lord and Lady Lyttelton 
have carriage horses, that lady feels i so above 
the world/ 

Over the moon means in prodigiously high 
spirits, boisterous. It is generally, but perhaps 
not always, used in slight condemnation, as in- 
dicating excess ; and the comparison seems taken 
from the classical story of Pegasus, or the legen- 
dary one of the cow that jumped over the moon : 
A horse over-fresh from want of exercise, is over 
the moon-, ' the dun poney was over the moon, 
and went off with a wonderful kick ;' and Lady 
Lyttelton will moderate exuberance of spirits in 
her children thus, ( Now, Lucy, why you are quite 
over the moon to-day. 5 

€o Cubirte, ox to €\xtMt Cogetfjer* 

A phrase, it is believed, restricted in its proper 
application to the less noble sex : specially perhaps 
to young ladies and servants. It means to asso- 
ciate constantly together : to select one another 



out of many, as particular friends. As applied to 
servants, it seems to imply some gentle censure, 
as if the friendship in question involved some 
unreasonable estrangement from other persons, or 
was for the purpose of domestic gossip. 

Miss Lyttelton is held to cuddle with Miss 
Mackenzie, with Mrs. Percy, with most of the 
Nevilles, most of the Carews, most of the Her- 
berts, &c. &c. &c. &c. : and, among maids, 
********* 

25ucftt£{j, 

A word chiefly explicable by examples. That 
a dandy should be called a buck is indeed not 
unknown to colloquial English: but a buckish 
person in Glynnese is not necessarily, perhaps 
hardly ever is at all, a dandy. It refers to man- 
ner, and signifies free and easy, over familiar, 
with a special significance as to the corresponding 
deportment and gesture. The neighbourhood of 
* * * * supplies Lady Lyttelton with an inexhaus- 
tible number of illustrations of this epithet, which 
she deals out in a spirit of amiable criticism, not 
unaccompanied with feeble and imperfect attempts 
at mimicry. ****** is preeminently 



63 



buckish : and for the honour of * * * * * 
it should be noted that ******** 

$omp0U& 
CriumpljanL 

These phrases, in a certain connexion, the 
Author believes to be of Glynnese origin: but 
he has chiefly observed them as adopted with 
great enthusiasm, and applied with a strange de- 
gree of latitude, beyond the Author's powers to 
embrace in his present work, by the Rev. Wm. 
Lyttelton. 

In Glynnese, pomp and pompous are not much 
varied from their English use, except that they 
are always applied to something of which pomp 
could only be ironically predicated. 

Perpetual pomp is attributed to * * * * * 
for whom indeed Lady Lyttelton and Mrs. Glad- 
stone formerly, with much self-complacency, de- 
vised the title of Pomposo, 

But the reverend person above mentioned 
appears to discern a fitness in these terms, espe- 
cially in the word triumphant, in a manner pecu- 
liar to himself. A dog cocking his tail would 



64 



be so described : and some facetious verses, by 
the eminent hand which writes these lines, on 
****** were eulogized by him with 
the epithet ' triumphant. 5 ' 

€o Come on 

€o 4Bo <©ff 

3fn <2Bmger^&eer* 

Communicated by the Dean of Windsor. This 
pleasant metaphor, suggestive of cricket-matches, 
fairs, and races, has a very simple meaning : that 
of suddenness. It is believed that soda-water 
would convey the meaning equally well: best 
of all probably the pithy monosyllable, known to 
low shop-shutters, Pop. For the point of the 
metaphor is not in the particular beverage or 
bottle, but in the startling suddenness of the 
gaseous explosion which accompanies its opening. 
So interpreted, such an expression as c happening 
lilce ginger-beer 5 might not have been beyond the 
limits of vernacular propriety ; but the Glynnese 
language takes care to avoid that, by substituting 
c in ginger-beer : ' and whereas even so, anything 
going off might not wholly unnaturally be likened 
to the going off of the bottle in question, the 



65 



patient student will not fail to remark the auda- 
cious addition of coming, or coming on, in ginger- 
beer : probably the more frequent idiom of the 
two in Glynnese, and one which appears to defy 
any reasonable analogy with the English language. 
The effect is curious. Thus, upon Lady Lyttelton 
mentioning the remarkable fact that the love of 
poetry came to her in ginger-beer about the age 
of 16, the ready waggery of her reverend brother- 
in-law did not fail to suggest, that it sounded as 
if that moral sense had somehow been materia- 
lized, condensed, and seized, and consigned in a 
hamper, or, like physic for children, conveyed in a 
glass, of that 6 paltry and stomach-achy liquor/ as 
the Author once heard it called at Eton. 

€o Be a a^atfpr* 

Lady Lyttelton is again the chief authority for 
this expression in its Glynnese use : and her 
application of it is a constant source of sonorous 
laughter on the part of the reverend person so 
often alluded to in this work. The Author con- 
ceives it is nothing but an arbitrary substitution 
of the word i martyr ' for ' slave' in colloquial 
English : and signifies that overprecise and punc- 



66 



tilious attention to anything which is so often 
called ' being a slave to it/ So, to the great 
glee of the Rector, Lady Lyttelton, on seeing him 
go off somewhere in his usual hurry, upbraided 
him in these terms e Why are you such a martyr 
to your watch ?' evidently an emphatic metaphor 
to indicate preposterous proneness to punctuality. 
The lady in question is also fond of expressing 
painful self-devotion by the strong French deriva- 
tive l se martyriser:' wholly Anglified however 
both in its grammar and its pronunciation, so as 
to issue in such a paradoxical phrase as this, ' to 
martyr easy oneself/ 

<©rat 25atbg* 
oBreat €ommantier& 

These expressions seem very similar, and are 
accordingly placed together. The Author may 
perhaps be wrong in putting the former among 
Glynnese words: it may possibly be a Welsh 
phrase, and so derived to Lady Lyttelton and Mrs. 
Gladstone through their semi- Welsh lineage. 
The latter, he apprehends, is true Glynnese : c 
and both of them, he believes, are mainly in- 

c See however Walpole's Letters to Sir H. Mann, III. 80. 



67 



herited from Lady Glynne. They mean great 
people, leaders in their own line : but the peculi- 
arity, especially of the phrase ' great commanders/ 
seems to be that it is used in slight sarcasm, of 
somewhat inferior people, something like speaking 
of a cock of his own dunghill. It is specially 
used of upper servants. ****** on 
being seen together, suggested the remark, ' Look 
at those two commanders : ' and a row between 
* * * * # * was deemed serious, because 
they were two e such great commanders.' 

€0 €reat toitfj fctgpztb 

This is a peculiar, though a slight, perversion 
of the English sense of these words: and can 
hardly be explained but by an example. Lady 
Lyttelton one day, on resigning herself to the 
mercies of a dentist, told him, with no idea that 
she said anything strange, * not to treat her with 
respect : ' to the slightly indignant perplexity of 
the excellent tormentor in question, who seemed 
not to perceive either why he should be thought 
capable of treating her with disrespect, or why 
so unexpected a course should be suggested to 
him. The meaning simply was that she did not 



68 



wish her teeth to be spared, or dealt with in any 
unusually cautious or lenient manner, having 
vigorous and independent teeth which did not 
require it. 

€o Cafee out of* 
€0 Be €aften out of* 

These are significant phrases, both in their 
English and their Glynnese acceptation: which 
are materially different. The Author conceives 
that in English s such a thing takes a good deal 
out of me 5 is a recognised expression: but he 
doubts whether the passive form e to be taken out 
of' is to be found in that language. Moreover in 
English, 'to take out of/ means, according to its 
derivation, to exhaust, to tire : to consume and 
take from the bodily powers, which therefore need 
to be replaced and recovered by rest and other 
refreshments. This is not its correct meaning in 
Glynnese, in which it is of perpetual occurrence. 
In that obscure dialect, as the writer understands 
it, it means the painful sensation, which most 
persons must have felt, as if some part actually 
was taken out of one's stomach : the slight faint- 
ness or sickness produced by witnessing some- 



69 



thing unpleasant and trying : and so is used, not 
of great afflictions, nor again of mere trifles, but 
of ordinary troubles. Often may it be heard, 
amidst torrents of other Glynnese mysteries, in 
the interminable domestic confabulations between 
Mrs. Gladstone and Lady Lyttelton. The naughti- 
ness of a child, or still more to punish or to see a 
child punished, takes out of them grievously : as 
also any inter-menial uproar, and to have to re- 
primand any favoured or formidable servant, as 

A very vulgar and sensual metaphor, for 
which we appear to be indebted to the Dean 
of Windsor. The Slang-Dictionary and Epsom 
Downs meaning of this word is food, luncheon 
carried in a basket ; from which service that Dig- 
nitary has attempted to elevate it to mean food 
for the mind, information, &c. : but it has not 
reached a higher level than to mean c gossip/ f news/ 
So, if one of his nieces had been on an amusing 
visit, he might beseech her to come and sit close 
to him on the sofa, and say, ( Now, my dear, grub, 
grub/ 



70 



fSefiounfc 

This word means a particular species or class 
of that of which the former word indicates the 
genus. The metaphor is much more refined and 
elegant, being apparently taken from the game of 
fives or the like. Its use and derivation are also 
very intelligible and appropriate. It always sig- 
nifies the impression or opinion about A, com- 
municated by B to C : A being any person or 
place or thing, B and C being persons. Further 
to particularize, it always means a pleasant im- 
pression, or favourable opinion: and moreover 
such as B imparts to C with perfect honesty and 
fairness, and without any intention that it should 
be repeated to A or the owner of A. An instance, 
when analyzed, will shew the great felicity and 
closeness of the image. A (Hagley and its in- 
mates) is the wall of the fives-court. B (Mrs. 
Phillimore) is the ball which impinges against 
this wall, being flung by C (Mrs. Gladstone), and 
rebounds or returns to the hand of the said C : 
that is, she visits Hagley at the instance of the 
said lady, and upon her return from it, according 
to engagement, communicates to her in a letter 
or in talk, the impressions the place gave her, as 



71 



the impact impresses the ball: as, how graceful 
Lord Lyttelton looked, how beautifully Lady 
Lyttelton kept her papers, how noiseless the 
children were, how methodical the Rector, how 
horses and carriages abounded, &c. The language 
is careful to distinguish this word in pronunciation 
no less than in sense : for being in English an 
Iambus, f rebound/ in Glynnese it is a Spondee, if 
not a Trochee, rebound. 

€rape£* d 

These uncouth and barbarous monosyllables are 
put together, not that they mean wholly the same, 
but that there is a considerable analogy between 

d The Author has found a curious entry bearing upon this 
word in Johnson's Dictionary. The verb 'Trape' is there put 
without examples: and it is added (but qu.?) that ' it is com- 
monly written traipse.' The Author still inclines to think that 
it is of Glynnese origin as now used. Johnson explains it ' to 
run idly and sluttishly about. It is used only of women :' which 
however seems hardly correct, as it occurs in Swift's Letters to 
Stella, Dec. 13, 1710, Vol. III. Ed. D. Swift, p. 60; also ' traips- 
ing,' ibid. p. 112, 2 March, 1711. 

The Dowager Lady Lyttelton also deponeth, that it has been 
used by herself and her ancestors, to her own certain knowledge. 



72 



them. They describe forms of locomotion. c Sag * 
(which is both a verb and a substantive) is said 
of quadruped, e trapes ' (which is a verb only) of 
biped motion. They might be reduced as it were 
to a common denominator, by the application of 
a classical figure familiar to the Wenlock family, 
in which walking is called ' going upon Shanks's 
poney.' In so far as they mean the same thing, 
to sag might be called the trapesing of horses, to 
trapes, the sagging of a human being. They 
both mean somewhat painful and toilsome, and 
mostly compulsory and unsatisfactory locomotion. 
But both their resemblance and distinction may 
perhaps be best learnt from the usual assistance of 
examples. A sag means specially going up hill 
in a carriage. Every expedition in the neigh- 
bourhood of Hagley in the poney carriage with 
Butcher, and indeed almost any performance any- 
where with any of the ancient, skinny, legless, 
and windless horses which have for many years 
abounded in the Glynne, Gladstone and Lyttelton 
families, is a sure and grievous sag. On the 
other hand Mrs. Gladstone will inform her sister 
from London, as an action of some merit, e I have 
been trapesing through the mud to my court.' 



73 



ffe^ft. 

An exceedingly rare idiom, the use of which 
is perhaps confined to Mrs. Gladstone, and of 
which the very existence was denied by Sir S. 
Glynne and other authorities in the language, 
when the Author consulted them upon it. He 
is however, sure of his word and its meaning, 
and will maintain it against all comers. It refers 
to money payments, and means actual payment 
in hard money out of pocket : and is said to be 
an allusion more poetical than precise, to the story 
of Shylock. If you have to pay £20 down, it is 
succinctly and completely described as ' flesh/ 
But a deferred payment — a gradual payment in 
very small and easy instalments — a payment in 
kind — or by exchange of any kind, is not c flesh. 5 

It is naturally held a grievance, and to be 
avoided as much as possible, by the penurious 
persons of whom this vocabulary treats. 

€o Be 3Et>irteb. 

A very apt instance of the perverting power 
of this language over the words that come into it, 
as into a mill or a crucible, out of the English 



74 



vernacular. On signifying his intention of incor- 
porating this word into his immortal work, the 
Author has often been met with the allegation 
that it was a word known already to the English 
tongue. But this is a profound misapprehension 
of the genius of Glynnese. Addled, in English, 
is properly said of eggs, and means eggs which 
contain nothing, or nothing good for anything : 
an egg manque; and so of nuts or the like. And 
by a very proper metaphor, an empty-headed 
person is said to be addle-headed or addle-brained. 
Far otherwise, and indeed just opposite, in 
Glynnese. To be addled about a subject is not 
to be in a vacant state about it, but to be con- 
fused and perplexed about it, to have a crowd of 
thought about it, and so to be in an irresolute 
and undecided state of mind : the reverse of the 
egg or nut of the comparison. 

The Author believes that with respect to this 
word he may congratulate Mr. Gladstone that 
he is the first and hitherto the only person 
who has succeeded in introducing a variation of 
his own devising, into this jealous and mysterious 
language. The substantive 



75 
and, as a synonym to the above verb, 

€o Be in an SUtttfe, 

he believes to be an importation of that eminent 
Ex-Minister : and it is frequently used by him as 
descriptive of himself, in letters both on public 
and domestic matters to his wife. For about two 
days before the delivery of a great speech in 
Parliament he is, or believes that he is, in an 
universal addle on all possible subjects: and during 
that time Mrs. Gladstone will, with a wink and 
a nod, advise her friends to keep at a respectful 
distance from that Right Hon. person; and 
specially to eschew bringing dirt upon the carpet 
from their boots, which in all such cases he will 
straightway shovel up and fling into the fire, in 
the very eye of the offender. 

€tttb\p. 

It is not without humiliation that the Lexico- 
grapher inserts this word. For he is obliged to con- 
fess that it is one of which he has no original ex- 
planation to offer : and on being told that it was 



76 



part of his literary duty to give it a place in his 
work, he had no resource but to ask for a definition 
from one of the proper authorities in the language. 
For this purpose he betook himself to Lady Lyt- 
telton : who condescended so far as to inform him 
that to walk on a Turkey carpet, or the passing 
of carriage-wheels on crisp grass, was creebly. 

With this answer of the oracle, the Author and 
his generous readers must be content. 

jjtomatit 

is always used by Lady Lyttelton for stomachic* 
The learned reader need not be told that this 
would mean what relates not to the stomach, but 
the mouth. 

This word again suggests an humbled and peni- 
tent feeling to the candid writer of these pages. 
He engages in this part of his memorable labour 
with the sort of feeling that a school-boy has, 
whose exercise has been torn up, and who is sent 
back to do it over again. For he had composed 
what he conceived to be an accurate article on this 
head a considerable time ago : of which he will 



77 



say nothing except that on being produced it was 
loudly and somewhat scornfully disowned and de- 
nied by judges to whom he is bound to defer. 
Having therefore taken care to fortify himself by 
a personal reference to some of the more dis- 
tinguished authorities, he is now able to record 
that the word maukin, which is in English an ab- 
breviation of the word mannikin, and is often to 
be met with in familiar compositions like letters, 
meaning a small figure or effigy, such as Guy 
Fawkes on the 5th of November, means in Glyn- 
nese always a living person : and signifies an un- 
known individual, one discovered somewhere where 
his business is questionable, an unexpected appa- 
rition : and so sometimes, though rarely, applied 
even to known persons in similar situations. 
Lady Lyttelton will often disturb her reluctant 
husband, when looking from the window of his 
den at Hagley on the backyard, with this request 
for information, ' Who is that maukin coming up 
to the backdoor ? ' and a sick person much ex- 
posed to the unexpected visits of friends and of 
strangers, was pitied as being liable to a succes- 
sion of maukins coming into his room. 



78 

The Author has to acknowledge with due 
gratitude his obligation, both in being reminded of 
this characteristic term and in being furnished 
with a felicitous illustration of it, to the communi- 
cation from the Dowager Lady Lyttelton of an 
important interview on the stairs at Hagley, be- 
tween herself and Mrs. Gladstone. The younger 
of these ladies met the elder, who was suffering 
under a recent very tedious visit, with the condo- 
ling question, e Ain't you quite pawmpy ? s 

The well stored mind of the ex-governess of 
England, allowing for a Glynnese modification of 
pronunciation, suggested to her, first, from its 
knowledge of ancient history, the Roman general 
of that name : next, from its familiarity with the 
manners of modern nations, the West Indian race 
frequently so called :- lastly, from her tolerant but 
unsympathising recognition of the love of dogs in 
this country, the mastiff, or Newfoundland, to 
which that name has often been given. Deriving 
no light from any of these recollections, she 
sought earnestly for an authentic elucidation from 
the great Queen of Glynnese herself. In due time 
it came, and was this : that the mysterious word 



79 



was meant to be the French participle, pompe, 
which signifies properly pumped or pumped out, 
and so in Glynnese is figuratively applied to mean 
' jaded ' or e exhausted/ 

The toilworn author of these pages has derived 
a singular satisfaction and refreshment from learn- 
ing this term, because of the brilliant light it 
throws on two preceding passages in them: the 
one, the notice of the astonishing manner in which 
the Glynnese women pronounce French : the 
other, the article on the phrase ' take out of. 3 
Pompe appears to mean precisely the same as 
' taken out of/ but not in the Glynnese use of 
this latter word, but in the obvious English one, 
above set down, of 6 exhausted,' which is indeed 
almost synonymous with it : and so furnishes an 
illustration of the anomalous caprice which the 
dialect delights in. 

€lje U$t of ti)e Btth to 25e 

In a peculiar and very emphatic ellipse, should 
have been noted above, in near connection with the 
phrases ' than which,' and i beyond,' to which it 
much resembles. It particularly belongs to Lady 
Lyttelton, who uses it for the same sort of purpose 



80 



as the above phrase c than which ; * as thus. On 
entering into a room at Hagley or at Hawarden 
during one of those great confluences of families 
which occur among the Glynnese, and finding 17 
children there under the age of 12, and conse- 
quently all inkstands, books, carpets, furniture and 
ornaments in intimate intermixture and in every 
form of fracture and confusion, the experienced 
e Mother of Millions 5 will find relief in the aphorism 
c Well, children are/ It is evident that there is 
some notable incompleteness in this saying to be 
supplied, as c something too intolerable for the 
power of the English language to express.' But it 
is always uttered as if it was not only a complete, 
but a singularly full and perfect statement, to 
which nothing could possibly be added. 

€o €utt$zp. 

The Author has been reminded of this expres- 
sion by Mr. Gladstone. It means what is in 
some other dialect signified by the ungainly col- 
loquialism 'To squiggle:' namely to refuse to 
take precedence, to endeavour, probably with sham 
politeness, to give the pas to some one, to get him 
to take some good thing rather than oneself. 



81 



Even if applied to ladies, who do curtsey, it 
would be a strongly abridged form of speech : but 
the chief peculiarity is to be found in the fact, that 
it is as often or oftener applied to men, who do not ; 
so that the two old lame men whom Swift saw 
stopping some time at the door of a brandy-shop, 
each of them wishing the other to go in first, 
would have been said in Glynnese to be * curtsey- 
ing :' not properly 'curtseying to each other 5 or to 
any one, but simply ' curtseying. ' 

This in Glynnese indicates a giving up the 
point, a hopeless hitch or despairing prostration of 
energy in the conduct of anything : and is remark- 
able, like so many other expressions in the lan- 
guage, for the fearless manner in which it stands 
alone in a sentence, independent of all grammar 
and sense. Of a child suddenly seized with a 
fit of impervious obstinacy, and refusing to make 
any answer in a lesson, it would be said, i I mean, 
it was good bye : ' and similarly of a horse coming 
to a stand-still on a hill, or of a dead pause at 
dinner. 



82 

The etymology, though somewhat remote, is 
too plain to need elucidation. 

€ftar& 

The essential meaning of this phrase in English 
(see the Dictionaries) is, occasional work done for 
others for hire : as a ' charwoman 5 is called in on 
domestic emergencies for this purpose. The 
Glynnese language adopts one part of this mean- 
ing, and carefully discards the other. It still 
means odd jobs done for others, but not for hire : 
always gratuitously, and usually by gentlemen 
and ladies for each other : as for example, small 
commissions done by some one in London for a 
friend in the country. It is mostly used to indi- 
cate a slight degree of wearisomeness, a mild com- 
plaint. So one day Mrs. Gladstone wrote in no 
small dudgeon, about her reverend brother having 
required some little i char' of no less a person than 
her husband, in the middle of the Session of 
Parliament. 

The Author recently heard, and carefully trea- 



83 



sured up, a happy application of this term : illus- 
trating both itself and another Glynnese idiom, 
already commented on in this work. Lady Lyt- 
telton was benignly conversing with Miss Cathe- 
rine Pole Carew, concerning a certain memorable 
house in York Street : (see 6 The Doubting Dowa- 
ger, 5 an Epic Poem in one canto, by the present wri- 
ter :) and took occasion to remark that * she too had 
the churchy ardums as much as most people :' (see 
above, f The termination in urns. 3 ) The countenance 
of the bewildered cousin-in-law indicated inquiry. 
With the ready mastery over the form of this lan- 
guage which none but its great primary authorities 
possess, the gracious lady immediately substituted, 
as at least a sufficient synonym, the powerful term 
' the churchyard megrim/ Whether the young 
person so addressed was fully enlightened by this 
interpretation, the Author has no evidence to 
show : but he apprehends that the two phrases 
are not, and probably were not meant, as complete 
equivalents. Megrim is capable of a more precise 
and limited construction than the peculiarly rude 
affix urns. It is wholly removed from its English 
use, in which it is found in classical writers, and 
signifies simply a bad headache. In Glynnese it 



84 



has a mental more than a physical meaning. It 
is nearly the same as nightmare, but that it re- 
fers to a waking condition. Any unreasonable, 
nervous apprehension, morbid and painful half 
delusion or the like, is a c megrim/ The reader will 
at once see how well applied it is in the above in- 
stance, by the junior, but scarcely inferior, of the 
female Glynnese authorities. 

ffiSJant of %mxm. 

*In this expression there is but a slight, yet 
characteristic peculiarity, in reference to the En- 
glish usage. It is more perhaps, as in many other 
idioms of the language, in the brevity with which 
it is introduced, than in anything actually unpar- 
alleled when the sense is fully developed. In a 
case of such minuteness and nicety, the Author, 
as often before, places his chief reliance on an 
example : and thankfully avails himself of one 
which has been suggested to him. It is a supposed 
case, of Mr. and Mrs. Gladstone at dinner, on two 
days separated by a short interval. On the first 
day the Member for the University is powerfully 
attracted, as is well known to be his weakness, by 



85 



something in the second course with a great deal 
of sugar in it. The exemplary wife takes due note 
of this, and after a reasonable interval reproduces 
the same. Alas ! the absent-minded statesman 
now c takes it like pork ' (see above.) The unre- 
sentful grief of the partner of his cares exhales 
itself in the brief remark, f Now that I call want of 
interest.' 

The thoughtful reader has caught a glimpse of 
the sense. It refers to small domestic matters, and 
conveys a mild censure of such a want of appreci- 
ation of provident and benevolent arrangement in 
such things, as has been specified : and by the 
skilful scholar may easily be extended to any 
similar case, and the etymological process evolved 
with sufficient accuracy and clearness. 

This means behaviour, as in English : but yet 
with a difference. In English it is not used with 
reference to particular moments of time, or con- 
junctures of events, but generally : as tf the manners 
of a people/ 'manners of society, 5 ' of the upper 
classes,' &c. and more frequently in this manner 



86 



of classes than of individuals. In Glynnese it 
always means the habit of, or things done by, 
particular people, with reference to particular sea- 
sons and circumstances. So,, on arriving on a 
visit anywhere, with a proper desire to conform to 
the arrangements of the house, a Glynnese would 
enquire, ' What are your manners before luncheon 
here ? Do you go out, or what ? ' 

In English, notes upon a place, means what one 
has observed there that is worthy of record. So it is 
in Glynnese : but the difference is this, that in 
English, according to etymology, such notes are 
always what has been actually noted down in some 
kind of writing : whereas in Glynnese, contrary to 
etymology, it means simply what was observed ; 
and indeed it probably cannot be found used as 
indicating what was written down at the time. So, 
similarly to the last explained word, a Glynnese 
would say after a visit to a disagreeable place, ' My 
note was, that everybody quarrelled with everybody 
else/ 

This word may be profitably compared with 
rebound, which see above. A rebound necessarily 



87 



supposes a third party, as before explained : not 
so a note. A rebound is a note passed on, become 
current or exchangeable : according to the former 
illustration, it is what A thinks of B, which is 
the note, imparted by A to C, which is the re- 
bound : as it were a secondary formation in geo- 
logy, or a higher power in mathematics. 

This is of course either a sporting or a military 
metaphor ; and besides its peculiarity of meaning, it 
has the additional singularity that its most im- 
portant authorities are the two members of the 
tribe whose habits are the furthest removed from 
either of those occupations : the Dean of Windsor 
and Sir Stephen Glynne. It means, rapidly and 
suddenly to discover or hit upon, especially per- 
haps something at a little distance ; from which 
definition a remote clue to its derivation may no 
doubt be gathered by the perspicacious reader. 

Sir Stephen Glynne said in a letter from Eaton, 
■ Just now I shot a likeness between * * 

* * * % * * # * * . 

and the Dean of Windsor, as an agreeable piece of 
intelligence, e Last night I shot the Bishop of 
London in a corner at the Queen's party.' 



88 
Nearly synonymous with this phrase is 

€o Catct) t$t <£pt of, 

which is of course applied to things that neither 
have, nor could have, an eye. The Dean would 
say, ' Oh twin, twin, what's that vulgar thing on 
your nose? I just caught its eye for the first 
time/ 

The specialty of this, in its Glynnese use, is 
that it is properly applied to persons and not to 
things, and that it always refers to something 
about such persons which is more satisfactory or 
favourable than could have been expected in the 
circumstances. Handsome children of ugly parents, 
as ***** * are an e ex- 
traordinary result :' and if a child turned out well 
under a stupid or scampish governess, not that fact, 
but the child itself, would be similarly described, 
sometimes with a very characteristic ellipsis, as 
6 rather a result.' 



89 



Hoofting Slnjutefc, ot an "Jnjureii Hook 

The difference of this phrase from English is 
rather minute and delicate, but will be admitted 
to exist by all who are at all conversant with the 
language. On the one hand it is a more extensive 
phrase than it would be in English : for it is 
applied simply to a look, and does not necessarily 
imply that any injury of any kind has really been 
received. Moreover in English it would properly 
mean that such persons felt that they had been 
injuriously treated : whereas the Author has fre- 
quently heard it used not only of children, to whom 
it is specially applied, but of little babies, who can 
have no sense of the kind. 

On the other hand it is less extensive than in 
English, in this respect, that in English we speak 
of being injured by things as well as persons : in 
Glynnese it always refers to the act of some 
person. It seems properly to indicate a feeling 
of unexpected disappointment of something which 
one had a right to look for, and that through the 
neglect or carelessness of some other person. 

A child disappointed of a promised plaything, 
comes to complain with an injured look : and also, 
according to what has been said, if a child comes 



90 



looking out of humour, as if some such breach of 
promise had occurred, but not at all implying that 
it actually had, Lady Lyttelton will endeavour to 
set it right by a semi-jocose inquiry, * well, dear, 
what are you looking so injured about ?' 

fragment 

A curious expression, used with extreme brevity 
by the Dean of Windsor, and also occasionally by 
the other Glynnese. In its special sense it means 
not merely, as in English, something unfinished, 
but unintelligible, and of which no account can be 
given. One Glynnese asking another the meaning 
of some short allusion, in a third person's letter, 
to a subject well understood by the correspon- 
dents, the answer would be e I don't know: 
fragment.' 

When a certain Bishop was expected from 
abroad, and his arrival was long delayed, no one 
knowing anything about him, Lady Lyttelton said 
f So the Bishop is a fragment : ' which the Author 
leaves to explain itself. 



91 



31 3ftesf> f intu 

This means, simply enough, a new discovery : 
but the peculiarities are these. First the verb 
find is turned into a substantive, which, as is 
believed, is never done in English, but in the one 
case of finding the fox or the hare out hunting. 
Next, it is properly used, perhaps with an allu- 
sion to this hunting expression, of a discovery 
which reanimates the spirits and incites to some 
active pursuit. Lastly, a very idiomatic use of the 
phrase is the ironical one, of some one who ima- 
gines he has made a discovery, whereas the thing 
has long been known to others. 

Examples : ' Henry is gone off upon a fresh find 
to Buckley : something about the schools. 3 

c George out of his basket is so pleased at the 
idea of the Phillimores' coming to-morrow : quite 
a fresh find/ 

^tancmjjv 

This, which, it is needless to observe, is in 
English only used of horses, is in Glynnese 
applied to bipeds. It does not mean caracoling 
or dancing about, or anything exactly like what a 



92 



prancing horse does : but a bold and jolly way of 
coming into a room or the like. A buckish person, 
(see above) often comes in f prancing :' and it would 
be fairly used of an unexpected visitor who never- 
theless has reason to suppose himself welcome, as, 
( who should come prancing in but old Caro ?' 

€0 SoaEu 

This is another instance of what is, or might be 
an expressive metaphor in English, appropriated 
to Glynnese purposes, but with a slight gram- 
matical variation that gives it both a peculiar and 
a facetious character. A piece of news might in 
English be figuratively said to soak into a person's 
mind : and it would generally be used when cer- 
tain practical results eventually followed from 
such a communication. So it is in Glynnese : but 
that it is not the news, but the recipient of it, 
who is said simply e to soak :' with a curious 
effect. 

Mrs. Gladstone, on hearing that Lord Lyttelton 
had done a kind action founded on something he 
had known for some time, wrote to her sister e I 
am enchanted at George's soaking:' which, ac- 
cording to colloquial English, would indicate a 



93 



highly improper feeling of delight at hearing that 
that nobleman was assiduously tippling. Still 
more notably she added f It strongly reminds me 
of Henry :' as if it was ordinary with that Ordi- 
nary, to indulge in that questionable practice. 

frantic. 

This should be compared with rave, which see 
above, and with the use of which it has a strong 
analogy. It is used of a different state of mind, 
signifying anxiety, as about something lost, as the 
other term relates to pleasure or admiration. As 
in the former case, the peculiarity is, that what 
in English would only be used to denote some 
really extreme condition, is in Glynnese applied 
to very moderate emotion, and to very quiet 
people. So Mrs. Gladstone might say, ' Jem 
came over frantic, wanting a letter back which he 
had lent me to read/ 

$oto&er of f o£t- 

The Author believes that this designation means 
some twaddling little compound, of domestic use, 
known to ladies, housekeepers, and the like, 
but beneath his knowledge as a votary of philolo- 



94 



gical science. But lie apprehends that its me- 
taphorical use, which is perpetual among the 
Glynn ese, is peculiar to them. It is applied to 
an inadequate medical prescription, which how- 
ever possibly refers to its original meaning. But 
its most significant and frequent use is of a letter. 
' A powder -of -post letter' means a letter full of 
words but with small sense, and especially one 
which is so written intentionally r , so that it is 
described rather as a successful effort. e I sat 
down and wrote a powder-of-post letter to a tire- 
some woman who wanted to know all about Wil- 
liam's vote on Maynooth/ (Mrs. Gladstone.) 

% face. 

This is a precise rendering of the Latin umbra, 
in the sense of an uninvited or self-invited guest 
at a dinner. It is frequent with the Rev. Henry 
Glynne, who would say e I went and dined at 
Hugh Cholmondeley's as a face :' ' HI take you as 
a face if you do not mind, ' &c. It has the sin- 
gular appearance as if such a person was really 
nothing but a face, which no doubt would be an 
advantage with reference to the amount of accom- 
modation he would require at a table. 



95 



€aftc 3[n* 

This, the last, is also one of the most frequently- 
used of all the words in this memorable work. 
It is indeed used similarly in English : but, the 
Author apprehends, always of something great or 
deep, as to take in the reality of a great calamity , 
to take in the full bearings of a complex subject, 
&c. In Glynnese it is used colloquially of the 
smallest matters, and indeed specially of such, 
and which it is supposed that the person who is 
concerned in them will not take the trouble to 
attend to. Lady Lyttelton will come and poke 
her husband and say, i Old basket, will you take 
in that you are to be turned out of your dressing- 
room to-night for a maukin who is to sleep there ?* 
and Mrs. Gladstone in a coaxing manner, to her 
ditto when bothered between Burnett and a big 
blue book, f I want you just to take in that I have 
asked * * * -* * * to dine here to- 
morrow: rather an odd couple.' 



96 



The goal is won — the Great Work is finished. 
The Author will be excused, if he cannot dismiss 
it without a word of congratulation to himself, to 
the learned, to the world, to posterity. The 
retrospect of his own achievement astounds him. 
He recalls the hours of meditation through which 
dawned upon him the precise meaning of poor, 
of up and dressed, of who's ivho and whafs what, 
of local, of passing pigman : the mental throes 
which were needed to the detection and analysis 
of the minute differences of offal, groutle, hydra, 
and rotgut • of sitting tight, sitting cross-legged, 
sitting like a hen : of quaky and meaty : of 
gaunt and blue : of above the moon and over the 
world : of great bards and great commanders : 
the rapid intuition with which he singled out, 
amid the mass of spurious English similarities, 
the idiomatic specialties of rave, result, manners, 
take in, take out of, having the cares, sanguine; 
the sympathetic humour with which he recog- 
nized the grotesque inversions of idiotic, un- 
earthly, ebb of life, voucher, addled : the careful 
observation with which, in the absence of the 
slightest light from any known language what- 



97 



ever, he mastered the comprehensive force of ph, 
magpie, grubous, cuddle, batten, pintoed, let down 
the leg : and he feels on a new level among men. 
He is possessed with an involuntary self- com- 
parison to Montesquieu, and to Gibbon. It 
was on the steps of Hawarden Castle, — the air 
around him charged with Glynnese — after reading 
a letter from Mrs. Gladstone to the Dean of 
Windsor, and hearing a conversation between 
Lady Lyttelton and Sir S. Glynne, both equally, 
and totally, unintelligible to common mortals — 
in a fit of learned zeal and etymological enthu- 
siasm, that the thought of this Glossary, in its 
complex and harmonious grandeur, arose before 
his mind. He sends it forth, to an unworthy 
and unenlightened world: he sends it forth, in 
the sufficient strength of a self-approving mind ; 
yet not without some hope of the additional re- 
ward of Fame — some hope that his name too 
may find no subordinate place in the bright list 
of the scatterers of intellectual darkness, and the 
permanent benefactors of mankind. 



98 






Fragment of a Speech in the House of Com- 
mons, by The Rt. Hon. W. E. Gladstone, in 
which the whole Glynnese vocabulary is aired/ 

Sir, the noble Lord opposite is such a ph, and 
the hon. gentleman next him such a daundering 
and wizzy old totterton, that my take must be to 
make an idiotic speech, if they are at all to take it 
in: (a faint ironical cheer from a very young 
member in the gallery.) What's that unearthly 
little sound ? I shoot the buckish young maukin 
who fired away that cheer ! I could throw my shoe 
at him! Up and dressed indeed! Who's who 
and whatfs what? What sort of a result is he? 
M was a member! What was his speech just 
now? Fragment! Here have I been sitting tight 
all day, pompeissimus, for the chance of showing 
my ring on a subject I understand, and am I to 
be sat upon by a dandy-major like him, who 
caddies with all the twopenny people in town, 

f The exceptions are too trifling to sign : fy. 



99 



and can do nothing but sit in the gallery like a 
grasshopper's uncle ? 

Sir, I am sorry to see you looking so grubous 
and taken out of by the moral sag of this long 
debate. I fear that is one of ours. This house 
is in the chair for rotgut and offal and false 
flash : and some of the debates are beyond. Look 
at the hydra on the table: than which — Sir, I 
fear that while sitting there like a hen you must 
have the housums terribly, and that no speech 
can be any break to you. 

Sir, when I was just now high-gee introduction 
to the powder- of-post motion I am about to 
make — (A voice : 6 you need not conclude with any 
motion/) But that would be so poor ! Sir, I am 
addled with these interruptions, and shall tangle 
my tongue. If I have any more of them, good-bye. 
Really, young members are. 

Sir, I hold in my hand quite a circumstance: 
a voucher full of grub from an hon. member, who 
is absent on account of bowdler : (Mr. Speaker 
do you die ?) which I have been soaking for some 
time; and though it is rather local, yet as a re- 
bound from the place we all rave of, g I am sure 
S The Crystal Palace. 



100 



you will not look injured if I read it as a fresh 
find. The hon. member near me, with the little 
antic on his nose, need not sit battening with 
his eyes as if he was going to be niobe ! (A voice : 
i he is gone to sleep/) What a blow ! But as I 
am a martyr to the rules of the house, though 
I am not human from the manners of hon. gentle- 
men around me who are bursting every moment, 
I will not let down my leg, but will try to read 
(sanguine) the cocked-hat letter which I have 
mentioned. 

The hon. member was great audience to an old 
Dolly with whom he was an old shoe, who was 
frantic at having lost her shawl, making her 
rather a witch ; and she kept telling it to every 
passing pigman in the Palace. He had very good 
heart, and took great rank on his wisdom in telling 
the old lady to sit crosslegged in a corner, while 
he went and curtseyed with a policeman which of 
them should trapes about and find it : and though 
at first she thought it gaunt, and was eu pu 
crua, like one of her twarly grand-children, yet 
that went off in ginger-beer. Viewing that the 
old lady had been washing her hands, he ran off 
like a lamplighter, and found it squashed among 



101 



the towels : what an ebb ! Having the cares 
of its appearance, he got a pintoed little girl to 
make it tidy, (three cheers !) and pranced back 
triumphant with it to the Mum,: and said, ' Now 
you are above the world again !' But the Dolly 
having got rid of all her megrims, was over the 
moon with a magpie sandwich and some groutle 
brandy-cherries, and took it like pork. His note 
was, 'That I call want of interest P 'Catch me again' 
he said with a smack ' doing such a blowing thing 
for you ! A commander like me having the kind- 
ness as to do chars for an old moth ! You may 
lose your skin next, but you shall benumb for it 
by yourself!' 

Now, Sir, to consider the bearing of this on the 
question before us, of retaining the Crystal Palace 



Caetera desunt. 



THE DOUBTING DOWAGER, 

OR 

A TALE OF A HOUSE. 

1851. 

Releas'd from Court, from toil and teaching free, 
The Doubting Dowager desired to see 
Some fitting house for single ladies three. 

e Find me a house \ 3 she said : ' not over dear, 
Stinkless and smokeless, roomy too, and near 
To Carlton Gardens and St. James's Place, 
Where live those loved ones of our famous race. 
My faithful Appleyard Fll forthwith ask, 
Who'll bend assiduous to congenial task/ 



103 



O Doubting Dowager ! what chance of peace ? 
Beset by brother, daughter, sons, and niece ! 

c Belgravia ho !' the fast Henrietta cries, 
* To walk alone, uncheek'd by prudent eyes V 

' Out on thee !' Mary shouts, the peeress poor, 
Mother of millions : ( how from door to door, 
Shall I then, carriageless and weary, walk, 
To elder sister for an endless talk ? ' 

Henpeck'd (unconscious) in his wedded life, 
The Marshal of the Court supports his wife. 

The tyrant Caroline has many a care, 
Districts and duties, friends in every square, 
One drags her east, another pleads for west : 
One thing alone is sure : ( Whate'er is best, 
'Tis / shall govern, I" shall fix the place :' 
And shakes her conqu'ring fist in passive mother's 

face. 

The crafty Kitty would appear resign'd 
To choice of others : but in inmost mind 
Counts up that squad compact of western cousins, 
Estcourts and Carews, Bullers too by dozens, 



104 



And votes for Pimlico : the gentle lungs 
Sound hardly heeded, in the war of tongues. 

Sneers at the strife the Lord-Lieutenant easy, 
And says i Live where you like ! or clean or greasy, 
Noisy or still, provided Fve a den 
Where ink and paper, books and golden pen, 
Shall fill securely their appointed place, 
Models of order to an erring race. ' 

A Pussy to the rescue ! ' Dare ye go 
Beyond the limits of St. James's ? No ! 
Dare, Doubting Dowager ! But dread the wrath 
Of her who never fails ! Before whose path 
Quails he, the leopard-eyed ! Just 'cross the road> 
Yonder in York Street, is a sweet abode, 
Lovely look-out, rooms fitted for a Queen, 
Capacious, fragrant, fashionable, clean.' 

Warns the wise Earl, in sad and boding tones : 
( I speak from knowledge. From the dead men's 

bones 
Distil dank drippings through the cellar'd caves 
Of ghastly York Street, from the neighb'ring 

graves.' 



105 



Distracted Dowager ! can'st thou decide ? 
The despot daughter shall the knot divide. 
To distant Hawarden, far from others* pow'r, 
She drags the victim down, and marks her hour : 
8 Produce the parchment ! that will / unroll/ 
(So brought Queen Eleanor the knife and bowl) 
( The contract sure as death ! sign, subject slave ! 
Sign, Doubting Dowager! The House we'll 

have!* 

Still for a while, with hesitating care, 
On high the pen she brandished in the air : 
HoverM around the Hawarden brothers mild, 
Prepar'd to witness, and advis'd, and smil'd ; 
Yield, Doubting Dowager, to filial pow'r ! h 
Thy tyrant know, and feel the fated hour! 

The deed is done ! the House is thine at length ! 
Grim grins the Despot in her conscious strength ! 
Loud peals of laughter from the holy halls 
Of Hagley Parsonage have rent the walls ! 
(Whate'er betide, that Rector spies a jest, 
Wide-openM jaws and shouts the fun attest :) 

h * Filial' is said in the Dictionaries to mean ' belonging to a son * 
only. But it is used of daughters in King Lear, Act. III. Sc. 4. 



106 



York Street for ever ! York Street bears the bell ! 
And bards a long futurity foretel 
Of peaceful home and hospitable days, 
To earn for painful choice th 5 acclaim of tardy 
praise. 





INDEX. 




A was an admiral, &c. . 


20 


Addle 


. 


. 74 


Addled, to be 


. 


73 


Antic 


. 


. 40 


As 


• . . 


35 


Audience . 


• 


26 


Bards, great 


. . 


66 


Bathing-feel 


• 


34 


Batten 


. 


48 


To be, the use 


of the verb 


. 79 


Benumb 


« 


60 


Beyond 


. 


41 


Blow 


. 


53 


Blowing 


. 


53 


Blue . 


. 


57 


Bowdler 


. 


7 


Break 


• 


42 


Buckish 


. 


62 


Burst 


. . 


26 



10S 



Cares, to have the 




52 


Chair, in the 


. 


29 


Chars 




82 


Cheers, three 


. 


30 


Circumstance 




54 


Commanders, great, 


. 


66 


Creebly 




73 


Criersome 


. 


9 


Croix 




50 


Cross-legged, sitting, 


. 


2 


Cuddle 




61 


Curtsey 


• 


80 


Dandy 


, 


3S 


Daundering 




5 


Die, do you, &c. 


. 


14 


Dolly . 


• 


7 


Ebb, &c. . 




24 


Eye, to catch the 


• 


88 


Face 




94 


Find, a fresh 


. 


91 


Fire-away . 


. , 


46 


Flash, false 


. 


46 



109 



Flesh 


. 73 


Fragment 


90 


Frantic 


93 


Gaunt 


57 


Gingerbeer, to come on in, &c. . 


64 


Good-bye 


81 


Grasshopper's uncle, like a 


32 


Groutle 


17 


Grub 


69 


Grubous 


9 


Heart, no. Heart, bad 


33 


Hen, sitting like a 


43 


High Gee . 


39 


Human, not 


23 


Hydra 


18 


Idiotic 


22 


Injured, looking, &c. . 


89 


Interest, want of 


84 



Killing 



14 



Lamplighter, to run like a 



50 



110 



Leg, to let down one's 
Local . 



Magpie 
Major 
Manners 

Martyr, to be a . 
Maukin 
Meaty- 
Megrim 

Moon, over the . 
Moth 
Mum . 



Niobe 

Note . 

Note, cocked-hat, &c. 

Offal . 

Old Maid Old-Maidish 

One of mine, &c. 



Phantod 

Pigman, to tell it to a passing 

Pintoed 

Pomp. Pompous, &c. 



Ill 



Pompe* 


68 


Pork, to take like 


10 


Poor 


5 


Post, powder of 


93 


Prancing 


91 


Quaky 


4 


Rank, taking, upon a thing 


48 


Rave 


24 


Rebound 


70 


Respect, to treat with 


. 67 


Result 


88 


Ring, to show one's . 


. 47 


Rotgut 


33 


Sag 


71 


Sanguine 


21 


Shoe, I could throw my 


28 


Shoe, quite an old 


29 


Shoot 


87 


Sit upon, &c. 


15 


Smack, to tell with a 


55 


Soak 


92 


Stomatic 


. 76 


Superlative, use of the Latin 


27 



112 



Take 


14 


Take in 


95 


Take out of, &c. 


68 


Than which 


34 


Tight, sitting 


2 


Tongue, to tangle one's 


31 


Totterton . 


3 


Trapes 


71 


Triumphant 


63 


Twarly 


9 


Twopenny . 


44 


Urns, the termination in 


58 


Unearthly . 


13 


Up and dressed . 


37 


View, viewing 


38 


Voucher 


16 


Who's who & What's what 


31 


Witch 


56 


Wizzy 


3 


World, above the 


60 






^ 



wmmmmm 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



003 339 530 9 i 



